Mac mini startup problem. Blank desktop - no dock/icons.

I'll be getting a wired keyboard in a few hours to try it.

I had assumed Target mode would work with wireless keyboard/mouse.... very strange..

Am i right in thinking (hoping) that because the clock is showing, with correct time, on the desktop

means my hard disk is there somewhere and still ok? I'm freaked about the idea of losing everything...

something i should have mentioned earlier, apologies:

the battery in my wireless mouse died and then i think the screen froze.

And when i restarted, thats when this problem started

ok, there's been a development.

I have target mode working now from mac mini to my macbook.

(it seems i was holding 'T' too early. when i pressed a little after the chime, it worked).

So i can get my files which is great!

Is there anything I can do via target to try and solve my startup problem

(wired keyboard coming in few hours)

Ok, ive booted the mac mini,

It's now mounted on the MPB desktop

Now, do i use disk utility from the mac mini? (which i can now see)

ok.

I did 'repair disk' and got this:

Verify and Repair volume “Macintosh HD”

Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

Checking extents overflow file.

Checking catalog file.

Checking multi-linked files.

Checking catalog hierarchy.

Checking extended attributes file.

Checking volume bitmap.

Checking volume information.

The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.

Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.

what now?

(thanks for your help by the way, very much appreciated)

set up the wireless keyboard,

desktop prompted me to identify the keyboard, and an old mouse i plugged in.

And then just back to blank desktop, with background pic, like before

the mac mini os is 10.5.8

i have 2 mac osx install disks that came with it

macbook pro is 10.6.8

I'm backin up my data,

but i'm a bit lost about how to reinstall the OS

macbook pro has a disk drive

I'll try option 1, as i don't have install disks for the macbook

booted up macbook pro, with mini install disk inside

in target mode

booted mac min with option key, still came to the same blank screen as before after apple symbol...

when i turned off the macbook, got a message on screen of mac mini saying

'The device you disconned was not properly disconnected, etc... ie the usual plugging out message

and now the install disk is stuck in the macbook. not good.