How do I back up files and reinstall original disks on my Power Mac G-4 (2000)

A http://www.apple.com/usergroups/ may be able to help you.

http://www.powermax.com/ and http://www.lowendmac.com/ and http://www.midwestmac.com/ all sell older Macs.

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/mint/pepper/orderedlist/downloads/download.php?file= http%3A//www.shirt-pocket.com/downloads/SuperDuper%212.7.1.dmg

is a version of Superduper that lets you clone your software to an external Firewire hard drive that you can purchase from http://www.macsales.com/

Use this guide to format it the external hard drive:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3003

You'll want to keep at least 15% of the external hard drive free. If you can buy two external hard drives, or one of the Newertech Voyager with Firewire, you can make two bootable copies of your internal hard drive.

That way we can help you clean up your internal hard drive.

Why do you want to reformat the drive? Is it because the machine is running slow?

Be sure to backup you important files, like the book, daily.

The cheapest approach would be to try to figure out why the machine is running slow. Be sure to try safe boot.

You may want to run these "standard" fixes if the problem persists.

1) Check the amount of free space on your harddrive. You should have a several gigs free.

2) You should run disk utility

Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility

a) verify the disk

b) update your permissions.

3) Try a safe boot.

Shutdown your machine. Hold down the shift key. Poweron. Wait awhile; wait awhile while you harddrive

is being checked.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455

4) Another way to correct filesystem problems is into single use mode.

This page will tell you how to get into single user mode.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

Basically, you hold down the command + s key then powering on your machine. The command key

has a little apple symbol on the lower left. It is between the alt/option key and the space bar.

4) You may want to run applejack to clean up your machine.

http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

6) Run hardware diagnostics. It's good for a sanity check.

The older versions of ccc were donationware.

Here are two utilities for making a complete backup of your internal hard drive. I've recommend using one of these so that you can create a bootable system on your external hard drive. ( PPC require a firewire connected drive. ) Once created, you can run your system from the external drive. Hold down the option key on your keyboard then power on your machine. This will bring you in startup manager click on the drive image you wish to boot then click on the arrow key to the right.

"Clone, synchronize, backup. Schedule and forget it."

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

"SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless."

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html