XP SP2: Only Safe Mode doesn't work - normal system start works perfect!?

[WarRen!]

I need some urgent help from you all. This is Windows XP Service Pack 2. Actually the problem is very strange for me hence i came here. My system works good in normal mode but when i try to enter Safe Mode, i get a Blue Screen with the following error message:

"STOP error 0x7B appears (0xF78A6524, 0xC0000034, 0x0, 0x0)."

I did some searches on web and found that this can be caused due to missing or wrong IDE controller drivers. I am getting this Bluescreen just after the Safe Mode start-up routine asked for cancelling the loading of drivers sptd and a347bus. I even tried cancelling the drivers but it is unable to prevent the BSOD. Checking a bootlog protocol of a normal mode the
drivers following in the start-up process after sptd and a347bus would be:

pci.sys
isapnp.sys
ohci1394.sys
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\1394BUS.SYS
ACPI.sys
pciide.sys
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\PCIIDEX.SYS
intelide.sys
MountMgr.sys
ftdisk.sys
dmload.sys
dmio.sys
PartMgr.sys

According to this i guess the problem would be related to ACPI/IDE problem. Do you guys have any idea what can be done to fix this? Thanks for all your helps.

[Lucile]

I think you should check out the following MSDN article describing Background information on Stop Error message. By the way according to the article, Windows lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process. Typical causes: Installing incorrect device drivers when installing or upgrading storage adapter hardware, or a virus.

You should try out the freeware called HD Tune. You can download the same from here.After installation click on the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive letter. Now double click the two page icon and copy into a further message. Now click Health tab and double click the two page icon and copy into a further message.

[Mr.Walter]

Most probably this could be a Driver problem. A basic driver may be or the SCSI cable not faulty or wrong type. Just go through the process provided in the following MS KB Article describing: Missing [SysprepMassStorage] section causes a "Stop error code 0x0000007B (INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE)" error message on Windows XP Sysprep images

[WarRen!]

Ok, it seems like managed to fix half of the problem. Meanwhile i was doing searches on web and luckily found an article which helped me to atleast understand why the normal mode works and Safe Mode doesn't. It is because of the registry branch "SafeBoot" that should be located under HKEY_LM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ is completely missing!

As i have another Windows XP system, i copied this branch from the same and put it on my effected computer. Guess what now the Safe Mode is working fine. But it was the arise of another problem. Due to importing the "SafeBoot" branch, now the problem is with Windows themes, VGA drivers, audio drivers and so on...

Now i think the only option is to either rebuild the SafeBoot branch based on the working normal mode or simply reformat the entire system.

[Janos™]

Yeah, even i think instead of working with SafeBoot you should better perform a Repair/Install for Windows using the installation disk because other machine which you imported the Registry may be different with Hardware settings

[Amgeek]

Hello Oliver and all

Thanks for starting the thread and expanding on the solution. I think I may have come up with a fairly simple way to replace the missing registry keys.

Reinstall SP3

I think it's quicker and cleaner than a full overlay and it worked for me, at least on the machine I'm currently working with.

Thanks again