Issue
After deploying Windows XP using HII the machine either reboots continually (reboot loop) or displays bluescreen error 0x0000007b. This is done even when the hard disk controller does not require any drivers to be added in order to install the OS natively on the target device.
Note: Windows Vista and Windows 7 have fundamentally changed how these drivers are handled. They should not have a problem with this issue. This resolution will only work for Windows XP.
Cause
Most IDE controllers, and many SATA controls, have drivers built into Microsoft's Windows XP OS. During install the drivers that are detected are listed in the Windows XP registry under the CriticalDeviceDatabase. This section of the registry contains driver information for hardware that is necessary for the OS to load. If hardware is present, but the information for that hardware is not found in the CriticalDeviceDatabase section of the registry the OS will not boot. This can happen even with natively supported hardware, if it is different hardware from the source machine. This problem is compounded by the fact that generally there is no driver released by OEMs for this type of hardware, because the drivers are already built in.
Depending on the settings on the machine this will either cause it to get into a reboot loop or display a blue screen with the following error:
STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF741B84C,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
Resolution
List all possible natively supported hard disk controllers in the CriticalDeviceDatabase before capturing the base XP image. The source of information to resolve this problem is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082
The steps to follow are listed here:
1) Download the attached file called MergeIDE.reg.
2) Import MergeIDE.reg file's registry entries into the source XP machine before capturing.
3) On the source XP machine browse to %windir%\Driver Cache\i386.
4) Open the file driver.cab and/or sp3.cab (for XP SP3) and extract the following files:
- Atapi.sys
- Intelide.sys
- Pciide.sys
- Pciidex.sys
Note: Most files may be found in the SP3.cab file. Other drivers might be found in the driver.cab file.
5) Copy the four files that were just extracted to the %windir%\system32\Drivers folder.
6) Sysprep the machine and capture your image, like you normally would
At this point the machine should be able to be deployed to dissimilar hardware through HII.