XP problem

Hey all, first post here and have a problem or two. I'm pretty savvy with Windows based computers and just started my adventure into Linux distros. Anyway...

Today my mother brought home a Mini from her work. I have no idea what the specs on it are and it came with nothing but the power cord. She told me that the previous user said that it kept crashing and that it is set up to boot Windows XP. Well I plugged it in, powered on, and it went to a white screen and then right to the XP splash screen. I was under the impression that I would be able to select which OS I wanted to boot like when I dual boot on my vista/ubuntu system but I guess not. So here is my question:

Is there any way I can get it to boot to the original Mac OS? or to find out if it even has it on there? If I can get it to boot to the original mac OS I will be removing Windows XP from it as I have no use for XP. I have little knowledge or experience with Macs and would like this to be my first setup. Thanks for any and all help!

Haven't had Windows on my machine in awhile, but I think you can select to boot to OS X from the BootCamp icon in the menu bar.

You can also re-boot and press and hold the option key immediately after restart. That'll give you the option of choosing which OS to boot to.

Once in OS X, click on the little Apple at the top left of the screen - go to System Preferences - Startup Disk - and select the one you want to auto boot.

To get rid of Windows - you'll need to run Boot Camp Assistant - found in Applications / Utilites. Open it up and there on the first screen you can open up and print out or read through the help file ... do it ... it'll give you directions for merging the Win partition back into the OS X partition.

You should also ask if they still have the original disks for that machine - won't do them any good, and you'll need them at some point.

Thanks a ton! I'm using an old dell keyboard and I'm not sure there is an "option" key.

Dell keyboard, ALT = OPTION.

Regards.

Got the original discs and got it to boot OSX with the option key. Thanks so much guys!