My powerbook, running os9, has the flashing question mark icon upon powering on. After trying all the other initial steps I've read about (resetting PRAM, etc.) I attempted to boot from CD, but my op drive can't seem to read the CD, spits it out, then goes to the flashing ? mark.

I have files that are not backed up that I can't afford to lose.

I'm sorta at a loss here. Could it be I just need to replace the optical drive?

I have successfully tried booting into firewire target mode, so I know I can probably salvage files that way (can't I?).

Not too maconomically proficient, but can figure my way around things. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yea, I would backup what you can in target mode.

The blinking question mark means it can't find a valid operating system which usually would mean a corrupt or a dead hard drive. The optical drive issue could just be a coincidence and needs to be replaced as well, or there could be a problem with your logic board.

If you feel like trying it yourself, you'll probably want to try with a new optical drive and see if you can boot up from your install disk then. You may want to go ahead and upgrade the hard drive while you are at it.

If you don't feel confident, I'd send it in for a diagnosis and we could tell you exactly how much it would cost to get fixed without you having to worry about sending stuff back that you didn't need. I would still backup what you can first though.