I have a Dell Optiplex GX755 that I use for testing operating systems.

This particular machine would not let me re-install Windows XP Pro. The factory installed version had installed fine, but when I came to re-install it failed. Specifically on a blue screen of death STOP 0×0000007b.

So out of curiosity I tried to install Windows Vista SP1 and the same thing happened.

Next I try Windows Server 2008 and that installed perfectly.

So why the problem of with Windows XP / Vista?

I am sure it has something to do with the on-board Intel Matrix Storage Manager acting as a RAID controller.

What worked for me:-

In the Bios go to Drives > SATA Operation

You have 3 Choices

AHCI This is the default but causes the STOP 0×0000007b

ATA (This works) or Legacy (This works)

So I choose either ATA or Legacy and I can install Windows.

I did notice one difference between this Dell Optiplex GX755 and another that was working perfectly in this regard.

In the bios under the SATA identifier in my case SATA-0 in the Drive details section under BIOS it says “This drive is controlled by the AHCI Bios” on the problem one it says “This drive is controlled by the Raid Bios”.

So the correct way to re-install Windows would be to supply the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (OS Pre-Install Driver Only) package. During your Windows Install by Pressing F6 to load these. The prerequisite is your machine has a Floppy Disk drive.

This is a problem as Floppy Disk’s are now not common on new hardware.

This means you have to create a slip streamed install CD with the Matrix drivers installed. This is something outside of the scope of what a normal user should be expected to do.

In my case changing the SATA operation from AHCI doesn’t seem to cause any problems. Windows installed correctly and is working fine.