Mac OS 10.6/Time Machine cannot 'see' HD to re-install or restore

Upgraded my Mac Mini to Snow Leopard a couple weeks ago and had no problems. Then yesterday the computer froze up (the mouse still moved and icons in the dock expanded with the mouse but NOTHING was acknowledged when clicking to tabbing to any commands; could not even click from screen to screen for various functions that were currently open ... yet the mouse moved fine). Tried to restart computer and all I get now is a gray screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark in it.
Have tried all attempts listed here and in Support to (1) re-install Mac OS X 10.6 from the original disk, and (2) restore my computer from my Time Machine. Have tried many, many times now for both options and in ALL cases the computer cannot see or find my computer. The only disks it can find to re-install or re-store to are the 2 external hard drives I have. If I disconnect these, the computer can find NO disks to re-store to. (I've now let my system search for disks for over 3 hours this time around, and it still cannot find any disks to install to.)
So what's happened to my Mac Mini and "where" has this disk gone to? Why can't my Time Machine or Mac OS X installation disk find (or see) my Mac Mini?
(Really do need a new computer and was seriously thinking about just buying the new iMac this week, so maybe this is the sign. But would still like to get the last few files off my Mac Mini that I was working on when it crashed -- don't think Time Machine actually had time to back these up ...)
Cheers, and thanks for any suggestions and help!

Karl
It sounds like you are having trouble with your internal Hard Drive.
Whilst this is quite serious, sometimes you can fully recover from the situation, depending on what happened.
One of the most useful and reliable rescue utilities is DiskWarrior:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11707/diskwarrior
If you are lucky it may be something as simple as a damaged HFS+ wrapper, which can be repaired and have you back up on your feet again in relatively short order.
It pays to periodically check the *S.M.A.R.T. Status* of your drive, at the bottom of *Disk Utility.*
This is a self diagnosis function that may indicate impending problems. However if the disk has sustained physical damage, such as caused by a hard knock, nothing will redeem it.
Peter

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