Dying eMac, Don't laugh, you cows. Options

[novemberwind]

Oh woe is me.
I own an eMac. (Of course, not only me....but I use it the most.)
And I fear it has met its untimely end.
How?

I inserted a data DVD.
BASHOOM went the computer. (In a sense.)
More like.....A window started appearing stating that I ran out of application memory.
So I started cleaning out files.
I had about 17 GB free and it continued to scream at me , NO MORE APPLICATION MEMORY> PLEASE FORCE QUIT YOUR APPLICATIONS.

Hell no!
So I sent it over to a friend to get it fixed.
It came back, unfixed, last night.
So, in fear of things being erased, I started to back up files.
Guess what I popped in?
A DVD-RW.
Heheheh.
I managed to back up about 3.5 GB of my music....
And I popped in another DVD-RW.
And I started to copy the remaining 3.5 of my music. (More like 4.2, but whatever!)
And guess what happened.
It froze.
So I restarted it. (Interesting story so far, eh?)
And I restarted it again.
And it flashed a gray screen at me with a spinning circle.
"Nooooo!"

I popped in the CD. It worked before. Not to erase the damn computer, just to use Disk Utility and stuff.
Then I took it out.
Now whenever I turn it on, it flashes a little folder with a beautiful "?" in it, then a folder with the mac symbol in it.

Know what I did wrong? (I know that THAT'S obvious, but how did it make my computer go BAM?) Help? Is it a virus? (Damn! I bet it's because it's 6-6-06!)

If I'm in the wrong forum, go push me into the right one.

[magicfann]

Oh woe is me.
I own an eMac. (Of course, not only me....but I use it the most.)
And I fear it has met its untimely end.
How?

I inserted a data DVD.
BASHOOM went the computer. (In a sense.)
More like.....A window started appearing stating that I ran out of application memory.
So I started cleaning out files.
I had about 17 GB free and it continued to scream at me , NO MORE APPLICATION MEMORY> PLEASE FORCE QUIT YOUR APPLICATIONS.

Hell no!
So I sent it over to a friend to get it fixed.
It came back, unfixed, last night.
So, in fear of things being erased, I started to back up files.
Guess what I popped in?
A DVD-RW.
Heheheh.
I managed to back up about 3.5 GB of my music....
And I popped in another DVD-RW.
And I started to copy the remaining 3.5 of my music. (More like 4.2, but whatever!)
And guess what happened.
It froze.
So I restarted it. (Interesting story so far, eh?)
And I restarted it again.
And it flashed a gray screen at me with a spinning circle.
"Nooooo!"

I popped in the CD. It worked before. Not to erase the damn computer, just to use Disk Utility and stuff.
Then I took it out.
Now whenever I turn it on, it flashes a little folder with a beautiful "?" in it, then a folder with the mac symbol in it.

Know what I did wrong? (I know that THAT'S obvious, but how did it make my computer go BAM?) Help? Is it a virus? (Damn! I bet it's because it's 6-6-06!)

If I'm in the wrong forum, go push me into the right one.

no its not a virus, its your mac
more specifically, macs are !@#$ and u should get AlienWare

[*mipadi*]

Did you happen to install or touch anything in the /System folder?

The flashing icon indicates that the Macintosh cannot find its system software. This could be because a) something was deleted or corrupted in the system folder, or b) the hard drive itself is damaged.

Here's how you might be able to fix it:

Find your OS X CD. Turn on your Mac and put in the CD, then turn it off (pull the plug, hold in the power button, whatever works). Hold down C and turn the Mac back on to boot from the CD. When the computer boots up, you can run the Disk Utility—it's in the application menu of the installer. Verify your hard drive. If all is well, go back to the installer and try reinstalling the operating system. If you have all your files, feel free to erase the hard drive and start from scratch; otherwise, just reinstall the OS.

If you have any questions, let me know.