OS X System partition trashed? (but Windows sees it fine)

A few hours ago, I inserted a Leopard install CD in an attempt to install 10.5 to a USB drive. When OS X (10.7.3) rebooted, it never made it past the grey screen (didn't even get to the apple). After about 5m of no activity, I assumed a kernel panic and forced a restart. Ever since, I've been completely unable to access the partition from anything Apple-based. Attempts to mount in Disk Utility from the recovery partition fail miserably. Verify and Repair might as well be two rocks I'm banging together. Booting in Target Mode did absolutely nothing when connected to my MBP with a FW800 cable. Resetting the PRAM was entirely ineffective. I can't even unmount the volume when booted from a clone to attempt to reinstall. Restoration from a TM backup is pointless as the old system partition is not acknowledged as a vaiable install path. I thought all was lost until...
I booted into Windows (Boot Camp) and browsed the partition. All of my files are there, fully instact. I can browse any number of random files and view them (within the limits of the Windows OS) with no troubles. As far as Windows is concerned, absolutely nothing appears to be wrong with the volume, but OS X can't even scan it, much less allow me to browse. It's all rather perplexing, as I can't even delte the OS X partition in Disk Utility. Does anyone have an idea of what's happened?
PS My iMac IS one of the models slated for the Seagate HDD recall, but the fact that Windows (on the same drive) can boot and browse the OS X partition makes me think the issue's not hardware).

What happens if you run a partition map health check from Windows? What happens if you try a Repair on the OSX partition?

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Hey folks, I'm having a small issue with bootcamp.
Not too long ago did I have Windows running just fine on my Mac; everything was up to date, I managed to install 7 and upgrade to 8.1 just fine. Everything was good until one evening I open my Mac up, there is a command line that states "no bootable device." I don't believe I had installed Yosemite because last time I shut the Mac it was in Windows. I found a thread from another user here, and followed LonerT's suggestions and managed to get Windows back as a boot option, but the command line still pops up with "non-system disk."
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Whoa, LonerT!?
Certainly, here are the results of the commands:
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            394.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data MAC TO PC               5.0 GB     disk0s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                100.0 GB   disk0s5
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$ diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0
Password:
gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500277790720; sectorsize=512; blocks=977105060
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 977105059
      start       size index contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640 770347720      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
770757360    1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
772026896       1520
772028416    9762816      4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
781791232       2048
781793280 195311616      5 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
977104896        131
977105027         32         Sec GPT table
977105059          1         Sec GPT header
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 770347720] HFS+
3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 770757360 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 772028416 -    9762816] HPFS/QNX/AUX
joshuas-mbp:~ joshua$
I thought the corestorage command was a bit odd so I looked around the web to find out what it means. It doesn't sound promising.
As for you question on "what modifications were made to get [the drive] bootable again:"
I followed these instructions you gave in that thread listed above...
Here is an example.
sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0
Password:
fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory
Enter 'help' for information
fdisk: 1> p
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 121643/255/63 [1954210120 sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 1452530904] HFS+
3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1452940544 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1454211072 - 499998720] HPFS/QNX/AUX
fdisk: 1> setpid 4
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1454211072 - 499998720] HPFS/QNX/AUX
Partition id ('0' to disable) [0 - FF]: [7] (? for help)
fdisk: 1> flag 4
Partition 4 marked active.
Saying the Windows is bootable may be a bit subjective; the option appeared after this example you gave, but it won't boot into Windows.

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Since March 2012 my iphoto 11 trash folder says that I have 13,346 photos in the iphoto trash, but there are no thumb nail copies in the viewer window. I can delete additional photos but clicking on the "empty trash" button.
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Try the following:
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OT

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I am trying to use WBADMIN to take a complete system image of my system with the following command:
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Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
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Hi,
Try to test in WinRE to see what the result is.
Alex Zhao
TechNet Community Support

Looking for a One to Many script to extend the system partition for Windows 7 machines

Looking for a One to Many script to extend the system partition for Windows 7 machines

Pre-written scripts can be found in the repository:
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter
If you can't find what you need, you can request a script (no idea if anyone ever bothers to fulfill these requests though, I know I don't):
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/site/requests
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Don't retire TechNet! -
(Don't give up yet - 12,950+ strong and growing)

Boot Camp - Setup was unable to create a new system partition....from Windows install

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just to add to the mix. . . i just got a new macbook retina.
Originally used a USB flash drive. Hit the same barrier described here.
Spent a few hours with drive unplugging / replugging silliness. No progress. Went back into OSX to attempt using an external DVD drive. There is no option for that in Bootcamp assistant now - must use USB.
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OS X System partition trashed? (but Windows sees it fine)

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