I bought a MacBook a while ago and with it came an OS 9 cd, and having lost the cd for the main computer (a G4 tower) i threw the cd into the drive... i couldn't open the OS 9 install program because it required me to open the classic program to do so (im trying to install that classic program and the reason i need to reinstall this is because my mom accidentaly reinstalled all system software and wiped the hard drive clean, we got some information salvaged, but not much...) so i open up the "Startup Disc" in system preferences, as the pdf on the cd tells me, and i select the OS 9 CD. It restarts and as it does it comes up with a grey background with a folder in the middle flashing between a questionmark and the mac logo - how could i get it back to the operating system that was working fine, it was like 10.something.... how can i get the cd out of the rom and how can i simply restart without the cd? any special key i need to hold down? any assistance would be helpfull!

i've read some other threads and supposedly this flashing folder means the hard drive is useless now... that would really suck! sometimes i think technology hates me... help!