Unable to boot into Windows 7 partition, folder with question mark.

I booted into Windows using the work around I described above, and managed to run a chkdisk on the BOOTCAMP partition, but to no avail. However, I don't think that's what you intended for me to do. Could you elaborate a bit more on how I should use the chkdisk command? (As you probably guessed, there is no real info on this computer, so anything that results in a complete reformat of my hard drive is perfectly fine).

Also, I have tried both retail and burned ISOs of Windows, neither worked; all of my attempted Windows partitions have been 150-200GB, and the very same disks I'm using now worked when I first got my laptop back in 2010. I was able to use Boot Camp flawlessly and never encountered this problem before for months on end. I realized I wasn't using Windows much, so I got rid of it. But now I'd like to have that option back again.

And Startup Repair on the Windows DVD didn't find any problems either.

I don't believe it is strictly a Windows issue because I've tried installing Windows, updating everything to the most recent, and rebooting - that didn't work. I also tried simply installing Windows and rebooting before I even bothered installing ANY drivers - that didn't work either.

I do have retail (bought) discs from the store that have the same issue. The other versions I've tried have been burned through two different Windows machines (desktops) using the latest version of IMGBURN at 4x speed. Both discs successfully install Windows on other machines with no problem, they also install without issue on my laptop until, as I said, I attempt to change the Start Up Disc.

I have searched for any known firmware issues to my Toshiba MK5055GSXF HDD, which was listed under Serial-ATA devices in the system profiler, nothing specific comes up.

I have also recently tried zero-ing the hard drive (complete reformat with that secure erase option selected, hopefully to fix potential bad sectors), the issue persists.

Using EasyBCD 2.1 to identify start up issues on the Windows side returned no error as well. However, when I verify the Macintosh HD partition of my drive using the Snow Leopard installation disc, I notice it tends to 'update' or 'repair' partition information 'as necessary' and once it explicity referred to fixing a Windows Boot.ini (however Windows was not installed at the time).

Interesting to note: in OS X Lion 10.7.0, installation fails a bit earlier than usual. The initial expansion of Windows files completes, but as soon as it restarts (before I enter user account information or even see my desktop) I end up in an endless loop of a screen asking me to "Push Any Key To Boot From Disc..." followed by the folder with a question mark, which quickly turns back into the 'Push Any Key' screen, and then back to the folder with a question mark, etc, etc.

My work around of booting into OS X, telling it I want to install Windows, and just not pushing a key when it asks to boot from disc still works - however it has to be done every time I reboot (whereas in Snow Leopard, so long as I kept the Start Up Disc on Windows I'd only have to do it once). I've also noticed that in both Snow Leopard and Lion, whenever I reboot back into OS X after a failed attempt to boot into Windows, Finder appears to be quickly indexing the drive. Is this just normal start up behavior?

It seems to me to be some kind of hard drive issue, however I find it very odd that OS X installs fine whereas Windows cannot (even after the entire drive being reformatted, even once securely).

Thanks for the help, but I'm out of ideas at the moment.

The only other thing I can think of is some kind of EFI issue, I do remember Apple issuing an EFI firmware update a while back (which I installed just fine) - however this is simply guessing now. A problem like this that appears to 'survive' complete reformats seems to have some kind of hardware/firmware basis.

I ended up buying a new HDD (500 GB Seagate Momentus) and I haven't had the problem since. I'm currently booting Mountain Lion and Windows 7, switching between them all the time without issue.

So either there was something wrong on a hardware level, or some incredibly arcane software issue. The fact that I completely reformatted (no Windows, no OSX, a completely bare drive) multiple times and installed various Windows editions (with and without SP1, retail and slow-burned personal copies) leads me to believe I had an unsolvable hardware issue (bad sectors? I have no idea).

Sorry this obviously won't be more of a help, but it's better than thinking I found the solution and didn't share (well, I guess I found 'a' solution 😐). Best of luck.