DiskWarrior

Try running the DiskWarrior program from the other mac and see if it will recognize the iBook G4. ...

If that fails, as stated above, diskwarrior might be a good idea. ...

Very well could be directory issues or corruption of some sort. I highly recommend Alsoft's DiskWarrior. Startup with it's DVD and repair your Mac. Always had excellent results with it.

I've seen DW correct many errors that disk utility couldn't correct. Sounds like its something for disk warrior do to the fact that the most common cause of a corrupted directory structure is usually sudden power loses/powering down in the middle of writing to the disk.

Will diskwarrior help possibly? ...

Your best bet is Diskwarrior. If that doesn't fix it, the drive is probably gone. Perhaps all the reads from migrating the data was the last straw. You are just lucky you got your data across to the new machine.

It would be a good idea to have a separate backup of your files if you insist on encrypting them, and this is a good reason why. Its usually not a big deal to get files off of a computer or get the machine bootable and retain all data IF the data has not been encrypted. But if you have encrypted files and something gets hosed, the data is in jeopardy. You may actually have...

Right. Archive and Install should save your data. That you can boot up on the DVD and do that means you do not have a hardware failure--I have had the serendipitous "Frell the Volume" and Hard Drive death! That should do it. You should now considering the following for the future: 1. Spend $100: I need the beer . EX-HDs are VERY inexpensive and this panic should...

that DiskWarrior is no good was mistaken. ...

I've heard DiskWarrior does more harm than good, and you don't need it as long as you have Disk Utility and OnyX. ...