Need help with corrupt iBook hard drive

I have a G4 iBook that would not start. I was able to start up with a 10.4 install disk, but the hard drive is not recognized by the installer so I cannot re install. I started it up in Target mode with another mac, but the hard drive does not mount (I know the target mode worked properly because I still had the 10.4 install disc in the iBook and that did mount on the other mac). I have an external firewire drive with OS X installed and I can start up from it when its plugged in. After it boots, I get the message that says something like: OS X does not recognize the disk you inserted. You can Initialize, Ignore, or Eject. Before I give up and initialize the hard drive, I was wondering if anyone had any advice about repairing or restoring the disk so I can get my photos and music, etc off of it (I would just restore from a backup, but I'm an idiot and don't have a backup). I tried a demo of Disk Restore II, but it found nothing, so I'm afraid to purchase any disk utilities just to find out that it won't work. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Thanks for replying. I had tried using disk utility. from the install disk, the disk is not even recognized in Disk Utility. When i try it after starting up from the external drive, it is recognized, but the verify and repair permissions buttons are grayed out, and the verify and repair disk buttons both return "Volume check failed" when tried.

Thanks again for replying. I appreciate you trying to help me out.