I've been running Boot Camp on my MacBook for ages but for some reason yesterday Windows decided that it didn't want to start up, leaving me stranded in the sleek and shiny but ultimately LotRO-less OS X.

A few days ago I got a surprise warning from Avira about some worm or other but it seemed to deal with it and the file was gone when I looked so I didn't bother investigating further. My question is: Is it possible to run a virus scan for Windows viruses from OS X? It seems like a good idea, since Windows isn't running no malware or anything can activate and they should be easy to remove, but I can't find anything about it on The Google.

I actually just got ClamXav, was about to post saying I might have fixed the issue already. :]

It's currently scanning my Windows partitions and has flagged up a few already so it's looking promising.

Is MSE that good? I use Avira on my laptop (clearly hasn't been that effective) and Avast on my desktop (fine so far).

Ok, the virus scan worked and all but XP still won't start up. I've tried booting in safe mode and last good configuration and every time it gets past the loading bar splash screen there's what looks like a split second of BSoD and it restarts. :/

Any ideas? Is there any kind of scandisk I can run from OS X, or some way to repair install windows without having the CD?

You have to be able to boot into windows to use system restore. It's never actually worked for me, even when I was able to boot up and try it. It can also really slow down your pc as it writes restore points at seemingly random intervals, and will do everything on your hdd (requiring vast amounts of storage), unless you deliberately exclude partitions.

I've had better luck using the backup utility, it will even restore from another installation, as long as you point it at the right partition(s). Furthermore you can select which individual files to restore, if you know exactly where the problem is. Best thing is to make a backup right after a clean install, again after installing drivers, and again after main apps (keeping each backup on optical media).

It is way faster than having to go back and do a clean install.

What Dave!! said basically. I've fixed so many XP installations with a Repair Installation.

In this case he might not have another PC to stick the drive into meaning that option wouldn't be possible.

>Chkdsk is also unlikely to turn a none-booting Windows installation into a booting installation. It may fix a bad sector, but it won't recover the file which was sitting there.

You've heard of journallng?