Was messing with bootcamp without windows disk and now cant boot back to mac

hi, i recently was messing with bootcamp assistant because i was curious of what it was. when i opened it, it said something about patrionting. i dont think i clicked ok. but even if i did i quit of it. after that i opened it again to read some more because i have never used this app and it was on my dock. my computer restarted and now it says no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key? i cant do anything.. i have tried holding C and option when i start it.. but nothing. please help. i have a late 2006 imac 20 in runnng snow leapord

When you first power on you should hear the startup sound. Right after that hold Option down and keep it down. A Menu should show up. Is that menu blank? Be sure to keep the Option key down till something shows.

If you still get nothing let us know.

yeah

yeah no luck, i tried holding down many keys on the startup. i think like it is stuck in the instalation of windows but idk why that would be because i didnt let it partion all the way. so im having a friend bring over a windows disk maybey the windows side will boot and i can abort instalation that way?

Insert your Mac OSX install disk and boot from that. Check the disk and verify/repair your permissions and your hard disk. You may have inadvertently done something to your Mac boot sector. Booting into Windows is not going to fix a problem with booting into your Mac OS. From the sound of things, you may need to reinstall OSX.

i tried

the mac osx disk is in. i tried all of that. i think it is stuck in the instalation mode and wont quit out or anything until it finishes.

Was not clear from your post whether you can or cannot boot from your OSX disk. If you cannot boot from your MacOSX disk then there is something potentially very wrong here and it may not, as it happens, have anything to do with your mucking about with the BCA - that may have been coincidental. You should be able to boot from your OSX disk under any scenario and that would NOT be affected by anything previously going on under the Boot Camp Assistant. If you really can't boot from your OSX disk, I would either call Apple support or take it to the Genius Bar at this point.

If you can boot from your OSX disc but what you're saying is that the verify/repair procedures didn't help the problem when you went back to the hard drive, that's different and at this point I think you'll be stuck reinstalling OSX. Depending on what you see when booted from your OSX disk, you may be able to copy data files to an external media before doing that and you should explore that.

Cheers

I don't think you're doing the startup right.

Turn off the machine (completely powered down). Then, turn it on. IMMEDIATELY press and HOLD the Option key until the startup selection screen appears. It may take as long as a minute if you're using a wireless keyboard. And if that doesn't work and you are indeed using a wireless keyboard, switch to a wired keyboard.

There is simply no way that the installation started and influenced the partition in any way if you didn't have the Windows install disc in.

ok so now idk what to do. i have a windows disk in there and the patrioning was never completed so i can install windows anywhere....and i cant switch over to my mac side because it is determined it is going to install? what to do? im holding option and all that stuff on startup but its not doing anything..