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Friday, 26 December 2014 22:59

Windows 7 BSOD 0x0000007B - Cannot Boot Windows

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When you load windows you get a blue screen with the BSOD 0x0000007B error. This is generally caused by the 'Mass Storage Drivers' not loading for one reason or another such as

  • they have been corrupted
  • updated and the new version does not work
  • somehow they have been deleted
  • their start status has been incorrectely changed
  • the SATA controller type has been changed in the BIOS
  • You have changed motherboard or PC whilst using the same windows installation

Below are some tested fixes for this issue in windows 7. You might find that some of these fixes work for ohter versions of windows and not every solution will fix the 0x0000007B error.

Last Known Good Configuration (advanced)

Select the last known Good Configuration and see if your windows boots. It either will or it wont. If it does i would create a system restore point.

Startup Repair

Let windows try a Startup Repair. When your PC fails to boot it will ask you if you want to repair windows (Black and White Screen), select 'Repair Windows' and see if that fixes the boot issue

Incorrect SATA Type in the BIOS

This is a very common issue especially when you move your windows installtion to a new PC.

Windows is configured to use IDE or AHCI (or possibly a type of RAID) to boot windows and if the setting in your BIOS does not match this.

Solution

Enter the BIOS and cycle through the the different types of AHCI/SATA controller settings and see if you can boot windows on any of them.

fix_7hdc.vbs script - Adjust mass storage controller driver at offline system - Recommended

Basically this is a script that can handle the automatic installation of the correct driver by matching the installed hardware IDs to a driver, either those that are already install or from a specified folder which is handy when you have forgot to install them before moving changing your hardware. This script can be run from a windows DVD/Repair Console

This is an easy fix to try if you have the correct instructions. The instructions for running this script are not the best, so after trial and error i have written some.

The script utilises DISM utility to install the drivers.

Usage: cscript Fix_7hdc.vbs [options]

Options:
/enable                            enable, installed but disabled MassStorage drivers (or 'Enable existing Mass Storage drivers in system)
/target:<drive>   target Win7 drive
/install:<folder>   Path to the folder that will be the top of the Plug & Play folder tree.
/search:<file>   search flag file to find target Win7_drive
(default: \windows\system32\winload.exe)
/restore   restore registry system file
/log:<file>   (Optional)  Location of the output file
    Remmed out in code but might still be valid
/class:<class>   (Optional)  Filter the output by device Class
/provider:<vendor>   (Optional)  Filter the output by driver Provider
/excludeclass   (Optional)  Filtering excludes Class filtered items from output.
Default filtering in inclusive (only the filtered items are output).
/excludeprovider   (Optional)  Filtering excludes Provider filtered items from output.
Default filtering in inclusive (only the filtered items are output)
    End of Remmed Items
/q   (Optional)  Suppresses all data output to the console.
/?   (Optional)  Displays this help text.

Examples:

cscript Fix_7hdc.vbs /enable /search
cscript Fix_7hdc.vbs /enable /search:\users
cscript Fix_7hdc.vbs /enable /install:F:\x86 /search
cscript Fix_7hdc.vbs /install:D:\amd64 /target:C:
cscript Fix_7hdc.vbs /install /search:\label.txt
cscript Fix_7hdc.vbs /restore /target:C:

My Notes

If you run

Fix_7hdc.vbs
Fix_7hdc.vbs /search

(either implies Fix_7hdc.vbs /enable /search )

This is what it does

    1. searches for the live windows installation
    2. loads that registry and searches the registry
    3. Finding all matching 'Mass Storage Drivers' and sets their start DWORD to 0 (ie enabled)

      there is a prompt box for each mass storage driver, so there can be a few (unless you use cscript)

What i Would Type

cscript fix_7hdc.vbs /enable /search /install:g:\ahci

Because you use cscript there are no prompts but instead outputs to the console

  1. This will automatically search for the windows installation
  2. it will enable existing mass storage drivers in system
  3. it will then install (and enable i guess) any matching 'Mass Storage' hardware with drivers from g:\ahci (recursive search occurs on the /ahci/ folder)
  4. The driver(s) are then installed using dism using a simliar command as below 
    dism.exe /Image:C:\ /Add-Driver /Driver:"G:\AHCI\W64A\amdsata.ing" /LogLevel:4 /LogPath:G:\hdc\dism.offline.log

Links

Other Notes

  • if you change the controller type and run 'Fix_7hdc.vbs' it will detect the new type of controller
  • when not using cscript prefix, use /q to suppress messages

Manually Changing SATA Mode in Windows

sometimes windows gets mixed up with which SATA mode to work. This can be changed easily in the windows registry. As long as you can access the windows registry you can do it either online (proactively) or after the fact by mounting the offline registry.

DSIM - Manual Driver Injection

This is a new method that new versions of microsoft windows natively supports. It allows you to inject drivers to offline windows installs on normal harddrives or VHD (Virtual Harddisk). This is particulary handy if you have forgotten to install required SATA Drivers or you are creating a deployable image.

When using this command you must make sure your drive letters are correct. ie when you boot of the harddrive into the console your windows install drive will be C:\ , but when you load of a seperate WinPE disk it will most likely be D:\.

Examples

Dism /image:C:\windows /Add-Driver /driver:D:\64-bit /recurse

All sub folders from D:\64-bit are queried for drivers to add to the offline windows install @ C:\windows

Dism /image:C:\windows /Add-Driver /driver:D:\64-bit\

The drivers in the folder D:\64-bit\ will be installed to the offline windows install @ C:\windows

Links

Other Things to Try

Driver Installation / Recovery Software

My Other Notes

  • DWORD start types, 0 = enabled (possibly core load), 1 = ? , 3 = disabled
  • 0x000007b errors are definately caused by a fault in SYSTEM hive

  • I got a 0x000007b after installing windows updates, i think this is because it upgraded some driver files that had been interfered with by driver updating software

Read 3412 times Last modified on Friday, 20 February 2015 12:27
Published in Windows 7
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