[G4] G4 MAc wont startup

[Asshhh Lawrence]

Okay to keep it short, I bought a G4 mac off of Ebay for music recording.
Wasn't aware it wouldn't start up, though admittedly the auction doesn't mention if it even came with an OS.
Okay so the Mac will turn on...but wont boot an OS.
All I can get is the mac icon and a question mark.
Now I am running an official g4 mac keyboard & mouse so it's not a hardware problem.
Any ideas what's going on?
I tried a Mac OS 9 disk a friend gave me which was apparently bootable.
Not too sure how to boot from CD (some sites claimed hold C, others option and command).
But with any keyboard button combo I can't get the MAc to boot from CD, though i guess it could be the CDs fault.
Any ideas what i should do?
Should i just buy a formatted hard drive from ebay and try the OS 9 disk on there?
Gah, Help!
 
Specs:
- G4 - 450MHz- 40GB Hard Drive- 256MB Ram- DVD- 2 X USB- 2 X Firewire- 56KB Modem- 10/100 Ethernet
 
 
 
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