BSOD appears when installing Windows XP

[azuredave04]

Hello everyone, I just repaired a Compaq Presario C300 (C301TU) that hadn't turned on before. When I tried booting a Windows XP disk, it crashed during the setup menu. However, when I disabled the SATA Native Support, it worked just fine and had no problems. Somehow the SP32492 (Intel Matrix Storage Manager) as well as the SP32478 (Intel SATA AHCI Controller Driver) can not be installed. So I wonder if someone can tell me where exact the problem is and what I have to do to fix this? Thanks a lot!

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You have three options...The first two are with SATA Mode enabled in the BIOS.

1.  If you have a USB FDD and a floppy disk, put the SATA drivers on the disk and load them at the F6 prompt.

I have zipped up and attached the drivers you need, below.

When you press F6, windows will continue to load files, stop and ask you for the storage controller driver.

You would scroll to and select the Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller from the list.

2.  Slipstream the drivers using nLite into a copy of your XP installation disk.   Here is a guide for that, or you can google it further.

I zipped up and attached the files you need to slipstream below.  Slipstream all of the files in the folder.

Resolving "Setup did not find any hard disk drives" during Windows XP Installation (howtogeek.com)

3. Force change the AHCI storage controller in IDE mode, restart the PC, and change the BIOS setting back to enable SATA Native support.

Use the same drivers I attached below that you would use to slipstream.

This is a little complicated...

Go to Start>>Run>>devmgmt.msc>>IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers device manager category.

Click on the Intel named serial ata storage controller.

Click on the driver tab, click on update driver. Do the manual update (install from a specific location)
with "have a disk" option

Select the Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller from the list.

Windows will complain, but ignore the warning, and install the driver.

Reboot the computer, tap the F10 key to get into the BIOS and change the drive controller in the BIOS to SATA native mode.

Save the settings, Restart the PC, and boot to your XP OS.

Windows XP will load some more drivers and ask you to restart the PC again.

Restart the PC as instructed, and now the OS will run in AHCI mode.

[azuredave04]

Hello sir, because I'm quite busy now so I tried the third one that maybe the least time-consuming options. At first, I loaded the .inf file but it showed no information, I checked and found that all the files are zero kilobytes, so I downloaded and did what you said, this time it actually worked! Thank you so much! Your help always make me feel nice. But it's so weird that this C300, designed for XP, crashed when turning off SATA Native Support.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The reason that happened is because XP does not have the SATA AHCI controller drivers needed to work.

Without the right storage controller driver, you have to run XP in IDE mode.

So instead of the error you get when you install Windows Vista and newer that states in substance that 'no hard drive can be found,' WXP gives you the BSOD stop code.

[azuredave04]

Hello sir, thank you for your reply. I wonder if the same driver that you attached when you replied to my post can be used with different HP laptops/computers (with Intel processors) or each particular model has its own one. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you once again!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Yes with that one file, you would be able to install XP on any notebook or desktop PC that has up to an Intel 1st generation core processor.  The file supports AHCI and RAID.

For the second and third gen core processors, you would have to use a different file which I can provide if you ever need it.

[azuredave04]

How useful the driver file is! I will definitely try using it if I have more computers to come. Thanks so much for your valuable information! It always feels nice to hear from you. Have a nice day sir!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

That file is only going to work on XP 32 bit installations.

You need a different version of the file for XP 64 bit installations, which I have zipped up and attached below.

You have a nice evening!