rebooting old iMac with os 9.2

Can anyone help me reboot my old iMac Dalmation. It has been unplugged and on a shelf for years and I have a friend who needs a Mac to practice working on for a new job. Every time I turn it on it says that it didn't shut down properly and does disk first aid and then when it completes the hard drive icon is hilighted but I cannot open it and the finder doesn't even show up on the screen. I have tried to reboot several times holding down the c key but that doesn't seem to help it boot from the OS 9 CD which I had put in the CD Rom. I even tried the little button on the side by the keyboard and other connections, but nothing seems to work. I was finally able to get the CD out by holding down the mouse upon startup, but I can't seem to get to the hard drive which seems to indicate that it is dead. Anything I can do at this point to revive it?

With respect, you won't be doing this guy ANY favours if you do get it working.

If he needs to practice on a Mac for a job, that would mean a Mac built in this century, and running some recent version of OS X. Your Dalmatian iMac may as well be a PC running Windows 95. Send him to a library or other public space that has some Macs available -- they're much more likely to be somewhat akin to the ones he'll actually be working with. OS 9 really has very little to do with OS X.

As for your own machine, it's quite likely that replacing the PRAM battery will get it to boot. Whether the hard drive is dead or not shouldn't matter if you have a real 9.2 startup CD.

pram battery

Where might I find the PRAM battery you are referring to?

Mac Repair - Mac Parts and Service for Apple Macbook, iPhone, iPad or iFixit: The free repair manual.

If there's a Radio Shack or Battery Depot near you, they will likely have it. RS charges an ungodly sum ($15) but sometimes its the quickest option.