advice on hard drive errors and bootcamp

[cutcopypaste]

i was going to go and put bootcamp 3.0 on my mac (i recently installed snow leopard).. i was running the bootcamp assistant, but it had an error and said i'd need to reboot and run some checks and try again. i had accidentally left a few programs running and worry maybe that's what did it (i also don't remember being told to close everything, but I am in the habit of just goin through things.

anyway after i reboot, i notice my computer keeps freezing up and lagging etc. i run the disk utility and verify disk and it says there's problems that will need to be solved by running from my install disc...
so i boot up into the osx install screen, run the repair disc.. it takes a good while and then says that the disk cannot be repaired. it recommends doing a system back up and formatting the disk. serious stuff! and problematic bc I just haven't done it before and while i understand time machine is straightforward i dont' have any external hfs+ drives, just a couple half full ntfs ones. somewhat concerned, I reboot..
it takes a while this time, and has a progress bar i'm not used to seeing, but once osx starts back up it seems back to its snappy self.. no more lags etc. I run disk utility and verify the disk and it says it appears to be perfectly fine.
so i guess it's fixed?
should i worry about it still?
i'm a bit paranoid about trying to run bootcamp again, but dunno how much i should worry...

 

[Mush Tush]

i was going to go and put bootcamp 3.0 on my mac (i recently installed snow leopard).. i was running the bootcamp assistant, but it had an error and said i'd need to reboot and run some checks and try again. i had accidentally left a few programs running and worry maybe that's what did it (i also don't remember being told to close everything, but I am in the habit of just goin through things.

anyway after i reboot, i notice my computer keeps freezing up and lagging etc. i run the disk utility and verify disk and it says there's problems that will need to be solved by running from my install disc...
so i boot up into the osx install screen, run the repair disc.. it takes a good while and then says that the disk cannot be repaired. it recommends doing a system back up and formatting the disk. serious stuff! and problematic bc I just haven't done it before and while i understand time machine is straightforward i dont' have any external hfs+ drives, just a couple half full ntfs ones. somewhat concerned, I reboot..
it takes a while this time, and has a progress bar i'm not used to seeing, but once osx starts back up it seems back to its snappy self.. no more lags etc. I run disk utility and verify the disk and it says it appears to be perfectly fine.
so i guess it's fixed?
should i worry about it still?
i'm a bit paranoid about trying to run bootcamp again, but dunno how much i should worry...

I'm no expert and I've only 'deduced' what the solution might be from forums, other's problems, and hours of trying to run the BC assistant from XP and restoring my Macbook Pro from my external hd.

I missed whether or not your install worked and whether or not you installed XP sp2. I got a:

"Hit any key to start from CD...
Disk Error
Hit any key to restart."

I hit any key and it doesn't work. Deleted the top partition (from a choice of three. I believe it was marked F 200 MB G -which was my mac partition and C:/ for the BC partition) Well that was stupid I think it destabilized my HD I also tried formatting from my disk utility as a MS-DOS format thinking that would fix the problem. It obviously didn't!

Ultimately after soo many solutions that got me nowhere I repartitioned my HD as one partition wiping it clean. Using an external HD from a snow leopard install dvd (upon engaging your MB hold down the 'Alt-Option' key) I went to disk utility and restored everything from my most recent time machine backup. It works perfectly and corrects any HD abnormalities you may run into. You may need to reauthorize your iTunes, re-eneter your Mail password, and a couple of other things of the sort but after an hour wait your mac should be as good as new.

Don't have an external HD I would suggest getting one. Great asset! I've heard from various sources that to avoid that error you need to get a replacement XP sp2 (I'm going to try to call Microsoft and give them my license key for my eBay purchased OEM) disk that will allow you to format the partition in NTSF or FAT format (FAT is only to be used in instances where your partition is less than 31GB running an XP sp2 platform ONLY!)