Mac mini won't mount hard drive on start up

My mac mini was shut dow for a week while on vacation. Upon return I tried to start up and hard drive won't mount. I can hear it make repeated attempts but it won't engage.

Actually I think there may have been a power outage while I was gone, but the computer was shut down. Could this be a factor?
I do not get any boot choices it just keeps cycling the initial disk start-up prior to the chime. I'll try starting with the Option or alt key down.

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1. You don't own another Mac.
If the machine shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, you need a boxed and shrink-wrapped retail Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) installation disc from the Apple Store or a reputable reseller — not from eBay or anything of the kind. If the machine has less than 1 GB of memory, you'll need to add more in order to install 10.6. Preferably, install as much memory as it can take, according to the technical specifications.
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If you already own another Mac that was upgraded in the App Store to the version of OS X that you want to install, and if the new Mac is compatible with it, then you can install it. Use Recovery Disk Assistant to create a bootable USB device and boot the new Mac from it by holding down the C key at the startup chime. Alternatively, if you have a Time Machine backup of OS X 10.7.3 or later on an external hard drive (not a Time Capsule or other network device), you can boot from that by holding down the option key and selecting it from the row of icons that appears. Note that if your other Mac was never upgraded in the App Store, you can't use this method.
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Strange thing happening with a new MAC Mini:
For Christmas, I bought my wife a brand new MAC mini. Everything has been working fine. So, for our anniversary, I bought her a 120 gig USB hard drive (I know, I'm such a romantic
Anyway, ever since I hooked up the hard drive (USB Drive) to her system, it seems that when I first turn the MINI on, the keyboard and mouse completely stop working. once, I had to hold the power button in to hard boot it, then, when it restarted, everything was working fine again.
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It seems that the USB hard drive being plugged in while powering the MINI up is giving me some grief.
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http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8110750
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I'm sorry. I should have been more detailed in my description. It is a Toshiba drive. here are the specs:
The Toshiba HDDR120E02X 120GB Hard Drive is USB-powered and includes an internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology. Ready to go out of the box and certified to work with Windows XP and Vista as well as Mac OS 10.3.9 or later.
Technical Information
Storage Capacity
120GB
Drive Performance
Data Transfer Rate
480Mbps External Maximum USB 2.0
Interfaces/Ports
Interfaces/Ports
USB 2.0 USB
Physical Characteristics
Form Factor
External Hot-swappable Portable
Miscellaneous
Compatibility
USB 1.1
Plug n Play
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Mac mini won't mount hard drive on start up

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