Mac Mini not booting to EFI(?)

I have tried looking for a solution, but since I am not sure what terminology I should use have not found any results so far.

In an attempt to reinstall my Mac Mini (model A1176), I formatted the HDD prematurely. Now it will not boot at all, not even to the 'EFI'? The part where you can usually choose a medium to boot from when you hold the 'alt' key.

Could anyone point me in the right direct for solving this? I am thinking of installing an OS X partition on it from my MacBook (mid 2010) and see if it will run when I drop that back into the Mini.

Any people with better ideas or experience in the matter?

Thanks for the reply, I'm using the apple-supplied keyboard, though. The metal one with white keys, wired and with numpad.
I can't really find the original install dvd, just the ones that were included with several laptops.. but those are limited to the original hardware they were supplied with. I should have a snow leopard family pack dvd somewhere..

But you don't think installing the HDD directly in my laptop's compartment, install and then replace again will work?

Alright, interesting, as this was the keyboard they supplied with this Mini. I had an old colourful iMac before that one, that came with the plastic keyboards. Perhaps I can dig it up somewhere...

Small update, problem resolved.

Had the time to sit down with the Mini last night and when booting without holding any keys it would automatically boot from the dvd-drive. But when holding the option key it would just sit idle and do nothing. So, I popped in the original OS X dvd that I could find - haven't been able to grep my snow leopard dvd, unfortunately - and I've got a working headless mini again.

Thanks for the input chrfr!