Q: Mac Mini Server fails to boot

It's a 2009 model.  The old body style, with no DVD drive.  One-of-a-kind.

If I boot with the Option key depressed, I get two options.  Mac Mini Server RAID and Mac Mini Server RAID 2.  Both have the same issue, Apple logo and spinning wheel forever.

I disconnected all peripherals and still there was no startup chime.  I didn't have the monitor plugged in but I can try again.

Resetting the SMC changed nothing.

I tried to connect a USB optical drive with the CD that came with in the box in it, but in the menu that appears when the Option key is held down does not show the drive.

Just the two hard drives that are in it.

Alright dude, more progress.  I reset the NVRAM and now I get a startup chime.  Prior to this, when trying to start in Safe Mode, the machine would crash.  (Which also allowed me to determine what OS this is running - Mountain Lion).  Now, when starting up in Safe Mode, I get a circle with a line through it.  When I boot with the option key depressed, I still see both RAID volumes.  Any ideas?

I don't remember whether what RAID it was.  When I said RAID 2 earlier, I wasn't referring to RAID level 2, I was referring to the name of the drive (Mac Mini Server RAID 2).  I tried booting both and neither worked, but disconnecting one?  Do you mean taking apart the machine?

More info - I booted into Single-User mode and typed /sbin/fsck -fy and I got error code "AppleRAID::completeRAIDRequest - error 0xe00002ca"

Any thoughts?

It seems so.  Any idea why the OS X Recovery over internet isn't working?  In fact, none of the situations described here Startup key combinations for Mac - Apple Support occur except for Single-User mode and Reset NVRAM.

I would like to recover the data, or at least look at things in Disk Utility?  I don't have a DVD for this machine, nor does it have a DVD drive.

I should also mention that I do not hear any HDD activity, just the fan.  I find it hard to believe that the HDDs are dead, because it worked only a few months ago and it has been off since then.  What can I do to repair this?  Is there some sort of bootable program I can load onto a thumb drive and boot of off?  I know these kinds of utilities exist for Windows, but for the Mac?

Perhaps the folks at the Apple Store might be able to help.  What do you think?

I used the recovery DVDs and wiped it out.  All is well.