Imac (Flat Panel) won't let me reboot from anything but hard drive! HELP !!

I was given an iMac flatpanel. Trying to erase hard drive and reinstall OS 10.2. The computer will not let me reboot from ANY cd or dvd. Tried everything, including an external firewire dvd-rom, and putting my macbook pro in target mode. (the message is that the imac doesn't recognize the HD and wants to initialize it!) I've zapped the PRAM, started in safe mode, I'M EXHAUSTED! Any idea how I can reinitialize the HD and start over?
Steve

Squigles wrote:
I had the same problem when I first had a MacBook, some company here in the UK wanted to charge £140 for collecting it resetting the firmware password and returning the MacBook to me. Some one sent me the instructions you see above, it worked and saved me a few ££.
Care to name and shame them? 
I like to know who to avoid and who not to recommend.
mrtotes

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