Inaccessable Boot Drive Windows Stop Error

[Kupoppo]

Howdy all,

I recently purchased an HP Pavilion a6750f Desktop PC with the desire to upgrade from the Vista 64 that comes on it to XP 64. The PC boots (or shall I say booted) to the preloaded Vista 64 just fine. I get the following stop screen any time I try to boot off of any XP install CD, however:


A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen,
restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed
hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive
to make sure it is properly configured and terminated.
Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then
restart your computer.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xFFFFFADF304323C0,0x0000000000000000,0x0000000000000000)


It will go through the usual disc boot procedure just fine, load all the drivers just fine, but yield that error once it gets to the part where it says "Windows is Starting..." From what I understand, this seems like it may be a driver issue... but I'm not 100% sure. I'd heard of all sorts of nightmarish issues trying to remove Vista on any computer, and had figured it was probably some sort of built-in protection against installing a different OS. I've since created my backup disks in case of worst-case scenario, and nuked the partitions on the computer. Nothing but unpartitioned space on the PC, and I'm still getting this error.

I'm assuming it's probably something with the drivers for the hard drive on the computer, but I have no idea what to do if that's the case. Is this a driver issue? Could this still be something from Vista? If anyone has anything to say to help me out, I'd be VERY appreciative... Thank you all in advance

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Yes, it is likely due to general incompatibilities with your hardware (lack of drivers etc). Your PC shows no official support for Windows XP: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...us&docname=c01619697&product=3872428&lang=en&

If you dig around you might be able to find the drivers on your own and slipstream them into the XP disc you have, otherwise, just choke it up and use Vista until the 7 RC is out in a few weeks.

 

[Kupoppo]

Ooooh, that's a good idea. I'll play around and see if I can't find some valid drivers... is there anything special I'd have to do to get them on the XP disc or should I be able to just kind of burn a custom copy with some added files on there in the right directories?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Best off using an application like nLite that will basically do everything for you. Loads of tutorials around if you look for them (I think there is even one linked on the nLite site, not sure).

 

[Kupoppo]

Well... I seem to be stuck. I've got nLite all set to go and no problems there, but upon cracking open the case of the new computer, it seems that my hard drive is a Seagate that requires no additional drivers other than the ones standard in both XP and Vista. According to my understanding of the error I'm getting, it sounded like my issue was with the hard drive. What am I doing wrong? Sorry for my inexperience in troubleshooting problems on this level... I'm just not sure what I'm BSODing over if it's not lack of Hard Disk drivers on the install CD. For records, I get this error on both Windows XP 64 and on Windows XP Media Center Edition.

 

[Kupoppo]

I guess I'm giving up. I've bit the bullet and reinstalled Vista... Maybe I will give Windows 7 a whirl once it's up and going if it's not too costly. If anyone can think of any solutions I'd still love to hear them, but for now I've got my computer chugging along on Vista and am tentatively planning on just doing the Windows 7 thing. Thanks for the help, though, Matthew!

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

You may very well need to provide XP with SATA drivers (which can be done with a floppy during the initial setup stages or, you guessed it, via nLite).

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

You *might* also have an option in your BIOS to run your HDD as an IDE device instead of SATA - which would give you a temporary fix to get XP on the drive.

Otherwise, yes, 7 is just around the bend and from my experience in beta testing, it is highly recommendable. You might be able to get your hands on a beta copy of 7 if you look around, and the RC should be out shortly (a few weeks, likely).

 

[Kupoppo]

Yeah... I've since been doing a lot of reading up on Windows 7 and I think I'm sold

I think I'm officially scrapping the upgrade to XP in lieu of going with Windows 7... dunno if I'll keep Vista til 7 officially releases or just go ahead and go for the beta now (I already have a key and everything), but I think my mind is pretty made up on using it in the long run on this computer.

Thanks again for all the help, I really do appreciate your taking the time on this to help me out!

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

You're welcome. The RC1 should be out soon, but I believe 7077 is the latest build in the 7000 line and there have been recent leaks of builds in the 7100 line (7106 I believe). 7077 should be plenty solid for regular use - I used 7000 for about a month as my primary OS.