It was the most recent update for Tiger...I don't remember the specifics. But, it's a G4 Mini, and that particular drive update is supposedly for Mactels only.

Anyway...took the Mini to an Apple store, described the problem, and they booted the mini from an external hard drive. The issue was suddenly worse, as now Disk Utility wouldn't even see the internal drive at all. Moreover, the drive was clicking...definitely a sign of death. Since it's under AppleCare, they'll go ahead and replace the drive for free (which will take a while, since they don't stock 2.5" IDE drives anymore)...but, you don't get your drive back.

So, I held onto the Mini for the time being in hopes of being able to get the data off the drive usign Data Rescue II. Only, now the problem has become even worse. I took the Mini home and tried starting it in target disk mode attached to my iBook, but it was a no-go. So, I tried booting off the Leopard DVD again, still nothing. Best I can get is the blinking question mark or a blank boot option screen. Even if I boot in Open Firmware and try to eject the Leopard DVD, it gives the dreaded 'cannot open drive' error.

So, now I have a dead drive in my Mini along with a Leopard DVD stuck in the optical drive. Just wonderful...