Re-install OSX without losing Windows7 partition? (preserving Bootcamp)

Question

Recently my computer stopped booting into mac OS (apparently unfixable, details on that deduction are below).
The question:
I plan to reinstall MacOSX (from my startup disc).
However, I'd like to be sure that this won't destroy Bootcamp's partitioning. (because windows7 currently still starts fine).
Can anyone confirm that losing bootcamp is not a concern?
I'm worried that maybe it is just assumed that reinstalling OSX will destroy the old Bootcamp setup?
(my google searches haven't brought up any examples of my specific situation).
More details:
After moving my iMac (i7, 27") to a new desk, I started it up and walked away. the power supply started beeping horribly (its backup battery had lost charge, i assume). I stupidly pressed the power button to turn the UPS off, to stop the beeping, even though the iMac was still starting up. This killed the power. oops.
I could swear I was able to restart in OSX that night... but maybe my memory is flawed- because ever since, the iMac has hung up while starting up. maybe "freezing up" is the better term? except pinwheel is still spinning... (I'd also swear I left the mac in sleep mode that night, but when I came back the next day it was turned off. not sure if my memory is flawed... or if gremlins are tormenting me)
The next morning when I started up, I noticed a progress bar beneath the Apple logo, which i'd never seen before. after a couple minutes this bar went away, and I was just left with the spinning pinwheel below the apple logo. I let this run for more than an hour before giving up (giving up == holding the power button for several second to force it to power off).
- I restarted with option held down, and was able to load the windows partition just fine. (and am still able to).
- I restarted with cmd-v held down to enter verbose mode and see what's up. seemed to become hung up after printing " Rebuilding catalog B-tree"
- I rebooted with cmd-option-p-r keys held down, to reset pram and nvram. no change.
- I restarted with cmd-s held down so I could type something at the command line. I entered the suggested "/sbin/fsck -fy" text.
here is quick snapshot of what it displayed, when this failed:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/iMacHOME-commandLine_s.jpg
(basically, it went from "rebuilding catalog B-tree" to "the volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired")
- I restarted with d key held down and ran the quick version of diagnostics. it said there were no hardware problems. (i did not run the longer version). I rebooted to the same hung-up problem.
- I held c to boot from my startup disc (which took maybe 3 minutes? long time?). ... (sidenote: I thought this would just let me into the old desktop, like booting windows into safe mode. but instead it was just a limited menu set, like I was stuck in a program I couldn't quit. I believe it was prompting me to start installing OS. I managed to switch over to the disc utility program, by attempting to exit the default program, I believe. I get so frustrated/angry/emotional over epic computer problems that it seems to affect my memory).
- In Disk Utility I clicked "verify disk permissions" button. It predicted this would take 7 minutes, but it just stopped runnig after maybe 2 minutes. no results were displayed.
- So I clicked "verify disk".
here is a quick snapshop of results:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/imac-verifyDiskFAIL_s.jpg
(basically, it says problem can't be fixed and I should reformat)
This is when I decided it was a lost cause and my only remaining option was to reformat the mac partition. (yeah? make sense?)
Bonus:
- I restarted in Windows and copied everything I could think of off of the old mac portion of the hard drive. I had to reformat my WDmyBook external HDD to windows friendly formatting for this. I noticed this when looking at disk partitions:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/homeMac-partitions_s.jpg
probably nothing interesting here. I just thought it weird that there were 4 partitions instead of two. Wondered if one of these partitions was devoted to startup, and could be fixed without destroying the core mac partition.
My gut says there is probably just some start up glitch, and if I was smarter I could fix it without erasing all the old Mac files and installed programs. Though I'm also worried it may be a physical disc error, and reinstalling OSX won't solve anything. maybe I've ruined the machine and should seek replacement HW. ?
Really just posting here to see if anyone has advice. and to help anyone else who might be in same spot of confusion.
Thanks for any tips.

Answer 1

#1 You need a more robust program to fix the Mac boot drive like Alsoft Disk Warrior.
I stopped bothering with using Apple First Aid.
#2 You can lose Windows
#3 Try SuperDuper to clone Mac volume to another HFS+ partition.
HFS has its weaknesses. You probably continued using OS X after freezes or other problems.
Ideal is to reformat and restore both.
If there was a bad sector that is something chkdsk could deal with.
If the bad sector is in the hidden partition tables, you have to reformat.
Reformat is the best way going forward.
Even replacing a disk drive is something you can do. You probably want backup drive for each OS though.
And there are 3rd party disk maintenance programs. And should always be backed up and ready to restore a system without exception. Even if possible to doing trial runs to make sure how to.
I would spend the money to fix the directory in Mac OS X rather than the free reinstall of OS X - after making a bootable clone with SuperDuper, and repairing the clone as well first.
You may (dare I say "should") install Mac OS only just 30GB partition on a hard drive to use for fixing your system, instead of using CD or DVDs. And a partition large enough to hold your current Mac system to use for backup clone.
Windows HFS9 driver from Paragon allows read and write ability. They also have an NTFS drive for OS X to add write support. Good Windows backup tools.
Paragon for Mac
SuperDuper
DiskWarrior