Windows XP stop 0x0000007b Error

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I'm having problems with two computers I have at my current work place. They are very similar to other machines I repair and reimage but for some reason when I reimage these two machines i contiune to get the error above when Windows starts to boot.

I thought at first that maybe it was the hard drive so I scanned it for MBR viruses, I ran CHKDSK, and even did recovery console to fixboot and fixmbr.

I ended up replacing the hard drives in both units, but still after imaging I continue to get this error. It does not come up with any other machine that has similar (SATA) hard drives.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: I have limited options in this computers specific BIOS but I have been trying everyones suggestions. I have updated the bios to no avail (still only ATA, AHCI, and Legacy aval) I can install a different version of winXP under legacy mode but my employer does not approve of that method.

windows
bsod
sata
asked on Super User Sep 21, 2009 by mosiac • edited Sep 21, 2009 by mosiac

5 Answers

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Very similar may not be good enough.

apply the image, boot from a windows xp cdrom (load the SATA drivers via F6 if necessary) and choose R for a 'Repair Installation'.

answered on Super User Sep 21, 2009 by (unknown user)
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Have you installed the correct SATA drivers for the controller on the motherboard? Also it's possible the SATA controllers are set differently in the BIOS from the other machines, I can't be more precise because the terminology differs depending on the manufacturer of the motherboard.

answered on Super User Sep 21, 2009 by Col • edited Sep 21, 2009 by Col
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Try here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103

You should also make sure your receiving machine BIOS settings aren't conflicting with the image contents. That is, how the computer is set by the image may have implications if any of these settings require a specific BIOS feature to be set accordingly.

Tentatively, start by making sure the BIOS of the receiving machine is configured for default settings.

answered on Super User Sep 21, 2009 by A Dwarf • edited Sep 21, 2009 by A Dwarf
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Have you checked if the problem might not be with the disk drives, but with the disk controller? Try and change the controller to check if the problem persists.

answered on Super User Sep 21, 2009 by harrymc
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0x0000007B is the error code for INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.

Now, there might be a thousand and one reasons for this popping out (including actual hardware failures), but the most usual one is just the storage drivers being in some way amiss. The most frequent case being switching the SATA controller mode to AHCI if the system had been originally installed with IDE, or viceversa (XP also only supports the later out of the box, so vendors drivers may decide they are meant to overrule it too)

Anyhow, usually, it's just enough to switch back in the BIOS to your previous setting or select "Last Known Good Configuration" from the advanced boot options menu.. but if that's not the case after a lot of bisecting my registry I found out the master trick (tutorial with images also here).

First you should find some way to load/edit offline your C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system hive file.
Then, you should check which is the active ControlSet, and navigate to its Services\PCIIde key (or whatever the driver name, if you know you were using others like for example iaStor, nvgts or viamraid). There set the Start DWORD to 4.

Save, reboot and it should work.

answered on Super User Nov 7, 2020 by mirh

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