Cannot boot my mini from CD/DVD or external firewire drive

The problem I face is simple: I cannot boot my mini from CD/DVD or external firewire drive.
When I boot with option key down, I see the Mac OSX boot and a ghost Windows from an early BootCamp installation, removed long ago (I now use Parallels).
I tried disconnecting everything but keyboard and mouse, to no avail.
I tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM.
I tried disconnecting the mini from everything and waiting one night.
I tried erasing the disk from another Mac when booting the mini as FireWire drive.
And still, the mini refuses to boot from the original CD, or any external drive.
Anyone has an idea whether it is software or hardware ?
Could it be a consequence of the early Boot Camp install and then removal ? Is there a way to reverse this ?
Any help or hint will be appreciated.
Best regards
JC
Intel mini early 2006 Mac OS X (10.4.10) 2gb RAM, core duo

Hi DaddyPaycheck,
Thanks for your message. Indeed, I failed to mention the problem from the Startup Disk Preference point of view.
Bootable CD and/or external disks also never appear in Startup Disk Prefs.
It indeed sounds like time for a backup (I did that) and a HD erase and reinstall of OSX. But since the CD does not want to boot, I tried installing from another Mac with my mini booted as FireWire drive. And that failed, probably because the master mini I used was a G4 one...
Best regards
JC

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Message was edited by: Majordadusma

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I got a brand new 17" 2g intel iMac and I'm very happy with it.
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