Mac Mini won't start-up (while DVD drive makes mechanical noises).

Here is what is going on:
When I turn on my Mac Mini, the DVD drive starts making mechanical noises, exactly the kind of noise it makes while grabbing a CD. It keeps doing this for a while, until it stops. The hard drive never starts spinning and the display remains dark. I have tried the following:
1) Booting from the Leopard DVD: the behavior remains almost the same. The DVD spins, the noises stop but nothing else happens.
2) After manually removing the DVD (nothing else worked) I tried reseting the SMS. I also tried the PMU procedure. As a result my mac mini became a powerful fancy fan.
3) After taking apart the unit (warranty period is over), I even changed the HD (I had another one) but the behavior remained the same.
I simply don't get it. I believe this happened after a power outage.

If it were me ... and if there is more free space on the external hard drive than there is "stuff" on the Mini that needs to be saved ... I would probably connect the Mini to the G5 with a firewire cable, connect the external to the G5, and startup the Mini in Target Disk Mode (which will mount it on the G5's desktop.) Then I'd rescue everything of value from the Mini's hard drive by copying it in small chunks to the external drive.
Then I'd shut everything down, disconnect the cables, and boot the the Mini from the Leopard disc and do a clean install. Then I'd bring the relevant data files back from the external drive.
(The actual details might vary slightly.)
(I see Nick had the same simultaneous thought -- though he expresses the process more clearly than I.)
Message was edited by: Boece

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