How can I reinstall osx 10.4 with "erase disc" option?

[Navigator]

I recently upgraded my G5 dual 2g machine with Tiger. I did not erase the hard drive before doing so, and now realize that I probably should have (especially since the computer is used almost solely for music production and needs to be as trouble-free as possible). I have since attempted to reinstall Tiger, and while the machine lets me, it no longer offers me the opportunity to erase the drive as it did the first time. What gives? And more importantly, how do I go about reinstalling Tiger on an otherwise wiped drive?

Also, I have backed up the hard drive almost wholly manually, dragging files and programs into an external drive. Is there an automated way to do this more efficiently?

Thanks for your help.

[bobw]

When you boot off the Tiger disc and choose the Language, go up to the Utility Menu to Disk Utility and use that to reformat the drive as Extended.

Then quit Disk Utility and continue with the Tiger installation.

SuperDuper is the best way to clone the entire drive to another drive.

[Navigator]

Hmm...well I did as you suggested, reformated the drive and attempted to continue the install (upgrade). After leaving disk utility the dialog box "Upgrade Requirements" came up as before. However, this time it says that in order to install Tiger, there must be a Mac OSX 10.3 or later on the drive but "Mac OS X v10.3 or later cannot be found on your computer." Does this mean that I have erased the OSX at the time I reformated? At this point, my only options seem to be to "restart" which simply brings me back to the install process and the same dialog box. Have I made a mistake here? Looks like I won't be able to upgrade to Tiger this way. How do I get out of this one?

[DeltaMac]

You are trying to use a Tiger upgrade DVD. If you look at the label on the disk, you should see the word 'upgrade' somewhere. That can't install if 10.3 is not already installed.
You should have the original restore DVD somewhere - it will be a grey disk. You can install from that, then upgrade immediately with the 10.4 disk that you have - or, purchase a commercial 10.4 install set.

[Navigator]

Okay, so now I have the original install disk ready to go but I'm having trouble ejecting the Tiger upgrade disk which is in the DVD drive. The disk eject key on the Mac keyboard is not responding. I've gotten into disk utility but I don't see any option for ejecting the upgrade disk. Any idea of how to get the upgrade disk out of the drive so that I can put in the OSX install disk? Thanks again for all the help.

[bobw]

Restart while holding the mouse down and the disc should eject.

[Navigator]

Thanks for the guidance people! I seem to be good to go now.