When installing Windows XP it gives an error. Windows XP won't install

The operating systems Windows XP and 7, despite the cessation of official support from Microsoft, and a relatively powerful advertising campaign, continue to occupy leading positions in the operating system market. Their reliability has been tested over the years and proven by millions of satisfied users. However, even when using them, errors may occur that prevent full operation.

One of them is error 0x0000007b, as a result of which the so-called blue screen of death appears, the computer does not respond to your actions from the word “at all”. The only way out is to reboot, but even that doesn’t help in such cases. Most often, the problem occurs when reinstalling Windows XP or 7, and manifests itself when the system boots, although this can happen in other situations. It is noteworthy that the situation can repeat itself even on a new computer or laptop.

In this article, we will look at the reasons why error 0x0000007b occurs when installing Windows XP or Windows 7, as well as all the solutions. If you read everything and follow the instructions carefully, you will be able to fix everything without any problems.

In fact, there are quite a few reasons why a blue screen with error stop 0x0000007b occurs. Moreover, they all directly depend on what operation you are performing at that moment. The only thing they have in common is installing Windows XP and running that version or the newer Windows 7. So, what could be causing the problem?

When starting the system:

Damage to important system files responsible for starting the system.
Viruses that can penetrate the system very deeply and affect the operation of the system.
Physical defect of the computer hard drive or errors in its operation.
A flash drive inserted into the USB connector.

This is what error 0x0000007B looks like

When installing the system:

Incorrect BIOS settings, which causes a crash.
Incorrect operation of drivers used in the boot controller. If they are damaged, the controller simply cannot complete the Windows installation procedure.
There is no support for the hard drive or SCSI controller of the installed operating system. May be on modern models of computers or laptops, since XP is already considered outdated.

Solutions

During system startup

Running the last working configuration

Because the failure can be temporary and random, Windows 7 and XP make it very easy to revert to the last working configuration. What does it mean? During operation, the system copies working files responsible for starting the system and its full operation to a special partition on the hard drive. Also, from time to time, an image of the operating state of the system is created, in which everything works as expected. Several such images are stored on the hard drive. Each time you start your computer, the system automatically selects the most recent one and over time, older settings are deleted. So if you get error 0x0000007b on startup, try opening the last working setup.

To do this, while starting the operating system, press the F8 button to exit to the boot menu. In order to launch this mode for sure, and not miss the moment, press the button several times. You will see a list of boot options: Safe Mode, Boot Logging, Debug Mode, and others. You need to select "Last Known Good Configuration (Advanced)". If everything goes well, Windows will begin loading normally. If this does not happen, this method will not help you, so try one of the following.

Select "Last Known Good Configuration (Advanced)"

Checking the disk for errors

The hard drive is not the most reliable component of your computer, especially if it is not solid state. It has moving mechanisms and consists of a magnetic surface and a read head. If you use a laptop and often work on it while on the go, perhaps even in transport, some sectors of the hard drive may be damaged. If the sector on which the system files necessary for Windows 7 or XP are written is damaged, startup will be impossible. To make sure whether your hard drive is operating with errors or some other reason is possible, you will need to use a proprietary hard drive check utility. But how to open it if Windows does not start?

Usually such a check is quite enough to restore functionality. If the disk is damaged so badly that the standard Windows tool cannot cope with the problem, try using specialized software for resuscitating hard drives. If no problems were found, but error 0x0000007b persists, try the next method.

Virus check

Some malicious files are so insidious and dangerous that they penetrate deep into the Windows system partition and damage system-critical components, resulting in error 0x0000007b. If the previous two methods did not help you, try checking for viruses by booting your computer in safe mode. Here are the step-by-step steps you need to follow to do this:

When installing Windows XP

Incorrect BIOS settings

The most common reason why error 0x0000007b may bother you when installing Windows XP is that the hard drive operating mode is incorrectly set. The fact is that all modern ones are connected via the SATA interface, which ensures reliability and high data transfer speed, and uses the modern ACHI standard, which allows you to use all the capabilities of SATA. Windows XP itself does not support this standard, since it did not yet exist in those days. Accordingly, because of this incompatibility, error 0x0000007b occurs when installing Windows XP and a blue screen appears.

To restore functionality, in the BIOS settings, set the default IDE mode, which will work in SATA compatibility mode. Where is this settings item located? How to set the required parameter?

Turn on your computer and go to BIOS. Depending on the manufacturer of the laptop or motherboard of the system unit, the keys or combinations thereof that must be pressed to enter the BIOS may differ. Most often this is F2, Del, Esc.
Depending on the type of BIOS used, the menu layout may differ slightly. Here's what you might need to click:
- Main menu - Advanced - OnChip SATA Type - Native IDE - F10 to save settings.
- Main menu - Advanced - IDE Configuration - Compatible - F10 to save settings.
- Main menu - Main - SATA Mode - IDE Mode - F10 to save settings.
- After activating the mode, repeat the installation of Windows XP.

No controller driver

Windows XP is known for its builds from various programmers, who either cut out some components to make the image easier and allow it to work even on old and very weak systems, or integrate additional software. When using trimmed assemblies, you can very often encounter the fact that they lack the necessary controller driver, which causes the XP installation to be interrupted and a blue screen to appear with an error.

The only correct solution would be to download another operating system image with a built-in driver. To do this, you can look for another assembly on torrent trackers and carefully read the description.

Conclusion

Now you know how to deal with error 0x0000007b when installing or starting Windows 7 or Windows XP. We have described the most common causes of its occurrence, as well as the most effective methods for solving it. If nothing helps anyway, the blue screen continues to pop up, then you should think about buying a new computer or laptop, or simply completely reinstall the system, download a clean and original image. In the comments, please indicate whether you managed to get rid of the problem using our recommendations.

Installing Windows XP on a computer does not always go smoothly. Often during this process errors occur due to both the lack of support for the standards of this system by the computer hardware and incorrect user actions. Often the same repeated error, for example, 0x0000007B or 0x000000A5, indicates that the computer's BIOS is not fully compatible with Windows XP, because it is either outdated (this option is extremely rare these days) or, conversely, is newer than required .

An error when installing Windows XP on old computers that previously had an earlier version of Windows can be resolved by updating the BIOS. On new PCs, most often the BIOS is quite simple to reconfigure.

You can put computers and laptops using GPT disks in a separate row. They use the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) interface instead of BIOS. Outwardly, it would seem to be more user-friendly, but a lot of problems arise with it when you need to install another OS instead of the pre-installed Windows 8. The difficulty lies in the fact that each computer manufacturer configures UEFI in its own way, so there is no single instruction, as well as a single approach There is simply no way to install Windows XP on such PCs. A number of general points can be identified, but many details will be unique in each case.

Updating the BIOS on an old computer

As we have already said, error 0x000000A5 when installing Windows XP on an old computer is due to the fact that its BIOS is out of date. To update, you will need to download a more recent version from the motherboard manufacturer's website, but one released no earlier than the release date of Windows XP (October 25, 2001).

The BIOS on older computers is updated via a boot floppy disk in MS-DOS mode. It is very important to download the correct version of the firmware, designed strictly for your hardware, since any error will make the motherboard inoperable (it can only be saved by flashing the BIOS using a programmer in a service center).

Stages of work

Format the boot floppy using Windows on any other PC. To do this, in the formatting settings, select the “Create a bootable MS-DOS disk” checkbox.
Place the downloaded firmware files on a floppy disk.
Before updating the BIOS, you can create a backup copy of the old version in case of failure. To do this, you need to assign a name to it in the autoexec.bat file, in the “Save current BIOS as” line.
Here, in the line above, the file name of the installed firmware with the extension .bin is indicated.

Go to the BIOS Setup settings and in the “Boot” section, assign the Floppy drive as the first boot device. Boot from the floppy disk. The firmware update process will start automatically.

Once this operation is completed, remove the floppy disk and boot the computer from the hard drive. Now you can start installing Windows XP. Error 0x000000A5 should no longer appear.

We configure the BIOS so that the system correctly recognizes the hard drive

Installing Windows XP on a computer equipped with a SATA hard drive or solid-state SSD drive also usually fails, but this time the user is plagued by the repeated error 0x0000007B. Its appearance indicates that the distribution does not have the necessary AHCI driver for the SATA controller, and therefore the system simply cannot find the disk where it should be installed. The problem can be solved in two ways: by integrating the necessary drivers into the Windows distribution and by changing the BIOS settings (switching the SATA controller to an IDE-compatible operating mode).

Reconfiguring the BIOS in this case is quite simple - only one parameter is changed, but we will immediately warn you: it happens that this does not help. And then all that remains is to supplement the distribution with the necessary drivers.

So, what needs to be changed in the BIOS:

go to the “Advanced” (in AMI BIOS) or “Integrated Peripherals” (in Award BIOS) tab;
change the value of the “OnChip Sata Type” parameter from “Sata->AHCI” to “Native IDE”;

if the “OnChip Sata Type” parameter is missing in your version, open the “IDE Configuration” parameter and change the value of the “SATA Operation Mode” option from “Enhanced” to “Compatible”;

To exit the BIOS menu and save the settings, click F10 and “Yes”.

After all these steps, you can begin installing Windows XP. If error 0x0000007B continues to bother you, it means that you could not solve the problem by reconfiguring the BIOS; all you have to do is look for the necessary drivers or a ready-made system assembly that already includes them.

Installing Windows XP on a computer with UEFI

The latest generation of computers are equipped with UEFI interfaces. Their appearance, of course, is much more beautiful and rich in settings than the modest text menu of the usual BIOS. Support for the Russian language would seem to make UEFI simple and understandable, but at the same time complex, since to install Windows XP on a computer you will have to do much more than change the order in which boot devices are polled.

Often, in order to understand all this, the user has to use experimental methods, changing one parameter after another and tracking which error occurs in which cases. By default, UEFI supports installation of 64-bit versions of Windows, from Vista to 8.1. Unfortunately, XP is not included in this list due to the fact that it is considered obsolete.

So, what needs to be done to install Windows XP on a computer with UEFI? First of all, disable the Secure Boot option, which is specifically designed to protect against boot viruses, and switch to BIOS emulation mode.

But before we get into that, please note that by default UEFI does not support booting from NTFS-formatted devices. Therefore, if you install Windows from a flash drive, format it to FAT32.

Disabling Secure Boot

This option is called almost the same in different versions of UEFI, but it is located in different places. Some laptops even have a button on the case to turn it off.

The rules and procedure for switching Secure Boot to “Disabled” mode in your version of UEFI are best clarified in the computer user manual, if available. If not, you'll have to experiment. To make it a little easier for you to understand this, we present a small table found on the Internet.

Switching to BIOS emulation mode

This mode remains in UEFI for compatibility with older versions of operating systems. There is also a lot of confusion with the name of this option - here computer manufacturers have expressed themselves, as they say, in their own way. The parameter may be called “BOOT MODE”, “OS Mode Selection” or something else. To switch to BIOS emulation mode, you must set this parameter to “Launch CSM”, “CMS OS”, “Legasy”, etc.

The exact wording of the settings and the method for switching modes should, again, be found in the user manual.

Here is another table that will hopefully help you in installing Windows XP on a UEFI computer.

However, no matter how hard you try, installing Windows XP in BIOS emulation mode may fail. The reason is not always that an error was made somewhere in the UEFI settings. There may be a problem recognizing boot media. In this case, you can try installing from a DVD if you did it from a flash drive, and vice versa.

In some cases, updating UEFI can help, fortunately, this is now easy to do from within it. Although, however, any mistake is not a death sentence. Try it, and perhaps you yourself will find a way to bypass obstacles and cleverly protect the new interface, and then share it with other users.

Despite the fact that more than three years have passed since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP, some users still do not want to part with this operating system. Well, this is understandable - some still have an old computer, the technical characteristics of which do not allow installing a newer OS, some need a fast system, while others are simply used to XP, not wanting to change anything for themselves.

Windows is a fairly stable and reliable system that can work without reinstallation for up to several years, but sooner or later it begins to fail, including critical ones. An example of one such failure is the Stop 0x0000007b error, which occurs during the loading/installation of the operating system and is accompanied by the appearance of the traditional blue screen of death. Most often, Windows XP users have to deal with it, however, owners of computers running Windows 7 are not immune from it.

The main reasons for the appearance of a blue screen with Stop error 0x0000007b

Error 0x0000007b, like a number of other similar ones, does not indicate a specific source of the problem, and the code itself may indicate various types of problems. In some cases it is accompanied by a message INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE, which immediately makes the user suspect that the hard drive is faulty. In fact, this error only means that the boot driver cannot initialize the boot device, that is, the hard drive.

The appearance of a blue screen with error 0x0000007b is often caused by a conflict of drivers of devices connected to the PC, incorrect BIOS settings, damage to system files or important registry keys, virus infection, the presence of bad sectors and file system errors on the disk, various hardware problems (most often associated with disk), problems with RAM, lack of support for the SCSI controller or hard drive installed by the operating system. We will not analyze all cases in detail; instead, we will pay attention to the most common ones.

What to do if an error occurs when installing Windows XP

The main and most likely cause of error 0x0000007b when installing Windows XP on a new PC is incompatible BIOS settings. The fact is that on new computers, the ACHI standard is used for drives connected to SATA, which was not yet used at the time of the release of Windows XP. You try to install the system, but it can't find a suitable driver and throws you into a BSOD. What to do? Try changing the operating mode of SATA drives from AHCI to IDE.

Go to the BIOS, in the Advanced section find the IDE Configuration setting, in it find the SATA Configuration parameter and set it to Compatible instead of Enhanced. In other BIOS versions, the indicated setting may be located in the Integrated Peripherals section and called OnChip SATA Type or SATA RAID/AHCI MODE. Its value needs to be set IDE or Native IDE.

If your BIOS has a Main section, look for SATA Mode in it and set it to IDE Mode.

Loading drivers during XP installation

The next way to resolve the error is to install the missing SCSI or ACHI drivers during the installation of Windows XP, but for this you must already have a floppy disk with drivers that match the configuration of your PC. At the very beginning of the XP installation you need to click F6 to install a special SCSI or RAID driver.

But since this method is hopelessly outdated, there may not be a utility for writing drivers on a disk with Windows XP, just like a floppy drive in your computer. Alternatively, you can use a USB Floppy Drive, but purchasing this device for the sake of installing an outdated system seems impractical.

Integrating SATA AHCI drivers into a Windows XP image

If you consider yourself an advanced user, you can integrate SATA AHCI drivers directly into the Windows XP installation image. For these purposes you will need a utility nLite, original SATA drivers with AHCI support for text mode (downloaded from your motherboard manufacturer’s website) and the Windows XP image itself.

The algorithm of actions is as follows. Unpack the driver archives and the XP ISO image into separate folders.

In the next window, click “Add” and specify the path to the folder with drivers.

Then activate the “Text mode driver” radio button, check the drivers you need and click “OK”, after which the boot image will be recreated.

If error 0x0000007b during system installation was due to driver incompatibility, it will not occur this time.

The method works, but why fool yourself if it is much easier to find on the Internet an image of Windows XP with already integrated AHCI drivers; fortunately, there are more than enough such assemblies created by enthusiasts!

How to fix error 0x0000007b when booting Windows 7

As with XP, incorrect BIOS settings can cause error 0x0000007b to appear when loading Windows 7. The system crash into BSOD with code 0x0000007b was often observed after the user enabled AHCI mode in the BIOS, especially in cases where an SSD drive was installed on the PC. No one argues that AHCI mode has its advantages, but in Windows 7 simply enabling it in the BIOS is not enough; before that, the system must be prepared. Therefore, we restore the previous settings in the BIOS, boot, launch the registry editor with the regedit command and expand this branch:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/services/msahci

On the right side we find the parameter Start and change its value to 0.

We do the same with the Start parameter in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/services/iaStorV.

After that, go to the BIOS and enable AHCI. This time the system should boot without error. The next time you reboot the system, the appropriate disk drivers will be installed. At the same time, we also recommend opening Device Manager and checking in the disk properties whether disk write caching is enabled.

Other causes of error 0x0000007b

The following reasons for error 0x0000007b, as well as ways to fix it, are equally applicable to both Windows 7 and Windows XP. If before this the system booted normally, but after updating or installing some driver during the next boot, Windows displayed error 0x0000007b, the reason is probably that the driver is not working properly. First, try booting into the last known known configuration by holding down the key right after turning on the PC. F8 and select the appropriate option.

You can also try booting into safe mode and uninstalling the installed software. If this does not help, you should roll back to a previous restore point if booting into Safe Mode is available. In Windows 7, everything is simpler; in this system you can roll back to a control or full backup copy by booting from the installation disk with the distribution kit.

Disk errors

File system errors and bad sectors can also cause error 0x0000007b. This is where the built-in utility can come to the rescue. chkdsk. Boot the PC from the installation disk (the same XP) by clicking R enter the recovery environment and run the command chkdsk /r.

In Windows 7, the same command is used, but with the /f switch.

If the disk is old and there have been problems with it before, it is recommended that you first connect it to a work computer.

Viruses in the boot sector

It also wouldn't hurt to check the disk for infection with bootkits - viruses that infect the boot sector and MBR record. Naturally, such a check should be done using bootable rescue disks like Dr.Web Сureit. Another option is to remove the disk, connect it to a working PC and run the test from there.

Hardware problems

A blue screen with error 0x0000007b may well be caused by hardware problems. If the problem really is in the hardware, then first of all you need to check the hard drive. The cables (are they connected well) and the power supply are also subject to inspection. Be sure to test your RAM, as there have been cases where error 0x0000007b occurred when RAM modules were damaged.

As additional measures, we can recommend disconnecting all peripheral devices from the PC (to avoid conflicts with their drivers), re-creating the MBR master boot record, updating the hard drive controller drivers, clearing the CMOS, and also replacing the atapi.sys, intelide driver files from under the boot disk .sys, pciide.sys, pciidex.sys from the directory System32/Drivers driver files from a working system of the same version. If you doubt the results of your own actions, it would be wiser to take your computer to a diagnostic center, where specialists will fix the problem.

Today, for those who like to buy laptops or desktop computers without operating systems, I will tell you about one of the many tricks.
I recently purchased a Toshiba Satellite L650-1KU laptop without an operating system.

Problem: When installing the Windows XP operating system, an error appears on a blue background.

Solution: changing the BIOS value of SATA Controller Mod from AHCI to Compatibility.

Explanation of the problem: When installing Windows XP, there are no hard drive controller drivers for SATA. If I installed Windows Vista or Windows 7 on this laptop, then everything would work, since the installer of the Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system already contains hard drive controller drivers for SATA.
Therefore, if you want to install Windows XP, then first go to the BIOS, find the value “Controller Mod” (depending on the manufacturer, the name of the value may be different). Change the value found to "Compatibility".

Error 0x000000A5 in Windows XP

One day, when you turn on your computer (laptop), the system suddenly stops loading and a blue background window appears, frightening to all users, with the following information:

Cause: This message tells you that the BIOS firmware is outdated and not compatible with ACPI; you can disable ACPI mode during installation. To do this, press the F7 key when the system prompts you to install storage device drivers. The system does not notify the user that the F7 key is pressed, but it disables ACPI and allows the installation to continue.
This problem can also occur if the amount of random access memory (RAM) has been increased on the computer in sleep mode. After resuming from sleep mode, Microsoft Windows detects changes in the state of the memory subsystem and displays the above message.
Trying to reinstall the OS or boot into safe mode will not work.

Solution: To get started, do a few simple steps:

delve into the depths of the computer
reset the bios by removing the battery for a few minutes (you may need to replace it)
remove the RAM sticks and inspect for damage
remove the cooler from the processor, pull it out of the socket and inspect for damage (just in case, change the thermal paste)

In my case, one stick of RAM was damaged:

After replacing the plate with a working operating system, the computer successfully booted.
Publication date: May 23, 2011

Installing Windows XP on modern hardware often poses some problems. During installation, various errors and even BSODs (blue screens of death) appear. This is due to the old operating system being incompatible with the hardware or its features. One of these errors is BSOD 0x0000007b.

A blue screen with this code may be caused by the lack of a built-in AHCI SATA controller driver, which allows you to use various functions for modern drives, including. If your motherboard uses this mode, then Windows XP will not be able to install. Let's look at two methods for eliminating the error and look at two separate special cases with Intel and AMD chipsets.

Method 1: BIOS setup

Most motherboards have two operating modes for SATA drives – AHCI and IDE. For a normal installation of Windows XP, you must enable the second mode. This is done in the BIOS. You can enter the motherboard settings by pressing the key several times DELETE at boot (AMI) or F8(Award). In your case, it may be a different key; you can find out by reading the manual for the motherboard.

The parameter we need is mainly located on the tab with the name "Main" and is called "SATA Configuration". Here you need to change the value from "AHCI" on "IDE", press F10 to save the settings and reboot the machine.

After these steps, Windows XP will most likely install normally.

Method 2: Adding AHCI Drivers to the Distribution

If the first option does not work or there is no option to switch SATA modes in the BIOS settings, you will have to manually integrate the necessary driver into the XP distribution. To do this, we will use the nLite program.

Go to the official website of the program and download the installer. We download exactly the one highlighted in the screenshot, it is intended for XP distributions.

If you are going to integrate, working directly in Windows XP, then you must also install 2.0 from the official website of the developer. Pay attention to the bit depth of your OS.
Installing the program will not cause any difficulties even for a beginner, just follow the Wizard’s prompts.
Next, we will need a compatible driver package, for which we need to find out which chipset is installed on our motherboard. This can be done using the program. Here in the section "Motherboard", on the tab "Chipset" the necessary information is found.
Now let's go to the page that contains packages that are perfect for integration using nLite. On this page we select the manufacturer of our chipset.

Download the package.
The archive that we received during downloading must be unpacked into a separate folder. In this folder we see another archive, files from which also need to be extracted.
Next, you need to copy all the files from the installation disk or image to another folder (new).
Preparation is complete, launch the nLite program, select the language and click "Further".
In the next window click "Review" and select the folder into which you copied files from the disk.
The program will check and we will see data about the operating system, after which we click "Further".
We simply skip the next window.
The next step is to select tasks. We need to integrate the drivers and create a boot image. Click on the corresponding buttons.
In the driver selection window, click "Add".
Select an item "Drivers folder".
Select the folder into which we unpacked the downloaded archive.
We select the driver version of the required bit depth (for the system we are going to install).
In the driver integration settings window, select all the items (click on the first one, hold down SHIFT and click on the last one). We do this in order to be sure that the required driver is present in the distribution.
In the next window, click "Further".
We are starting the integration process.
Select a mode "Create image", click "Create ISO", select the place where you want to save the created image, give it a name and click "Save".
The image is ready, exit the program.

The resulting file in ISO format must be written to a USB flash drive and you can install Windows XP.

Above we looked at the option with the Intel chipset. For AMD the process is slightly different.

Conclusion

We have discussed two ways to resolve error 0x0000007b when installing Windows XP. The second one may seem complicated, but using these steps you can create your own distributions for installation on different hardware.