I have bootcamp installed, and it has worked fine (for months) until today. When I boot up now, it goes straight into OS-X, whether or not I have the option keys pressed. It still sees the other partitions when I go into the "Startup Disk" utility in the System Preferences. I have done nothing with the boot sector, haven't even installed anything into the machine since the last time I booted into Windows. Is there a simple fix that I am missing? I really. REALLY do not want to install Windows again if I can at all help it.
I see that I can boot to windows through the Startup Disk mechanism, but that is really not workable as a long term solution. Any thoughts on how to make this be fixed?
The usual response to these types of issues is to do a PRAM/NVRAM reset: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
There is a way to disable the option key through the computer's 'low-level Firmware protection', but I doubt this is the case.
IMHO I think you should install reFIT. Get it here: http://refit.sourceforge.net/
It's a kickass replacement bootloader for Macs, it will see your Windows partition, as well as any USB, CD, HD Operating System, regardless of vendor.
Check it out. Super easy to install.