Help with a reformat

I had attempted to work with boot camp on an imac and when the setup for windows showed early signs of trouble i decided to just not go further into it and abort the process. Well whenever I restarted the computer it would go right into the windows setup and when i held down command when restarting so i could choose to boot up with osx, its disc icon was not there. I continued into the windows setup and removed what i had installed, and then restarted. A message appeared, something like (no bootable disc, insert bootable disk and press any key). i inserted the osx install cd and i guess it doesnt detect it. I hit a key and nothing happens. I have a wireless keyboard that worked fine during the windows install, so im assuming thats not the problem but i will try with a non wireless tomorrow.

Anyhow, is there a way to just completely reformat from this point so that i have a fresh machine to try this reinstall on? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Its a new machine so there are no files or anything that i need recovered. Once again I would be extremely greatful to anybody who could help me with my problem or at least offer advice. I made a mistake and realize now that perhaps i was messing with something that i shouldnt be, and that it is my fault. I just want to fix this! Thank you.

-Tyler

Put in the iMac restore disc that came with the machine and boot while holding down the C key. That will boot from the DVD and you will be able to go in and reformat and restore OSX from scratch.

is this a different disk than the installation disk, or is it the same thing?

EDIT:
The reason I ask rather than just go look is that I grabbed the CDs which were at my parents house and saw the osx install cd and figured that would do it and left. If there were any others, theyre still at their house

It should the iMac Install disc that came with the Machine. It will say iMac Install on the disc and will be grey, there should be 2 of them.

hmm, that is the disk that is in there, so hopefully (and this is a BIG hopefully) its the keyboard that isnt working. I don't have a non wireless keyboard in the apartment so ill have to try tomorrow when i can get one...
If for some reason its not the keyboard and its simply not working, what would my options be? Thank you so much for helping me out...

Odds are it's the keyboard. If you are using a non Apple keyboard, it may not boot holding down the C key. Seems the system treats non Apple keyboards a bit differently, even my Kensington Keyboard doesn't work when doing this, so I always keep one Apple keyboard in the house just for this purpose if required.

The system should just boot to the DVD if it is the only bootable device/drive the machine can find.

well all i have is a standard mac wireless keyboard and a wireless logitech windows keyboard so ill have to go out today and buy a non wireless mac. I just find it strange that it worked fine during the windows setup and wouldnt now...but if i get the new one and it works then i wont care at all. Just so I have everything completely right, I hold down the C key and then hit the power button and just keep it down until it would start reading from the dvd? if its me doing somethnig wrong id rather fix it now before spending the money for a new keyboard...thank you!

Nope, that's how you do it, hold down the C key and it should boot from the built in CD/DVD drive. Like I said, mine won't do it either with a non Mac USB keyboard.

new keyboard worked, held down C and it booted from the CD. However while going through the beginning of the install it came to a point where I had to choose a destination to install to and no disk icons appeared. I explroed several menus and whatnot and tried restore or first aid and it kept asking me to drag the disk that i wanted to restore to an empty box and none would drag. I'll post a more detailed response tonight if it cant be figured out from that info alone.

On the second install screen (right after the choose a language screen) go to TOOLS or UTILITIES in the toolbar (I don't remember which it is) at the top of the screen and select Disc Utility from there. See what you can do from that.

It was the strangest thing...I had already tried that but for some reason this time when I went to go through that everything just seemed to work. I was able to erase the drive and the install went perfectly. Thank you for the help, I really appreciate it!

-Tyler

Glad to help!