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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.

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  • @A Dwarf- That was the first thing I followed which is why I described the majority of resoultions in my question. @Col - I am required to image the computer's with a preset image that is supposed to work with any machine I am required to fix.
    – mosiac
    Sep 21, 2009 at 13:27
  • Ok, mosiac. Adding a little bit more information to my answer.
    – A Dwarf
    Sep 21, 2009 at 13:29
  • Unfortunately the SATA drivers are specific to the controller on the board if the drivers don't match the machine won't boot. It's possible the BIOS is supposed to be set to emulate IDE in which case SATA drivers are not necessary.
    – Col
    Sep 21, 2009 at 14:17
  • I can change the way the drives load in the bios if they are set to Legacy I can install an old version of windows but my work required image still doesn't work.
    – mosiac
    Sep 21, 2009 at 14:28
  • Have you checked the motherboards to see if they are the same as all the other machines you use the image on? If they are not then you can find out what controller they have by booting from an ubuntu live CD and doing lspci | fgrep SATA or look them up on the manufacturers web site. If the SATA controller is different from that of your other PC's the image is not going to work.
    – Col
    Sep 21, 2009 at 14:32

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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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'.

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  • I'll try this and let you know, but my image works with any other machine I am required to fix but these identical machines.
    – mosiac
    Sep 21, 2009 at 13:53
  • if these 2 machines are slightly different from the rest, you may create separate images for them once you have the problem sorted.
    – Molly7244
    Sep 21, 2009 at 18:46
  • I just wanted to update you that I am trying the repair option but it appears to have hung during the installing devices portion of the repair. My employer has told me our images need to be updated so hopefully the big guys will be sending me one.
    – mosiac
    Sep 21, 2009 at 19:42
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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.

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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.

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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.

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  • When I image the machines I have no control over what it selects for the disk controller. How would you go about doing this with a ghost image?
    – mosiac
    Sep 21, 2009 at 13:54
  • I was referring to a possible hardware issue with the problematic machines. My logic is that if the machines are similar to others that work, then the difference can only be a hardware failure.
    – harrymc
    Sep 21, 2009 at 14:14
  • I've replaced the hard drives, what other pieces of hard ware would you think to replace?
    – mosiac
    Sep 21, 2009 at 14:19
  • The disk controller itself. If it's faulty, then every disk will fail.
    – harrymc
    Sep 21, 2009 at 15:00
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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.

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