Blue Screen of Death During Startup

If you're trying to boot from an existing Windows installation on a hard drive transferred from an older system, then a BSOD on startup can occur. This often means that the system can't find the right storage controller; the actual error code is 0x0000007. Maybe your old system had its SATA ports set to IDE mode and your new one is set up for AHCI. Or perhaps your new board has a different chipset.

If this is the case, you may have to resort to a Windows repair installation, which you can perform with either Windows XP or Windows 7. The repair install option is available when booting from the Windows XP CD if you're running XP. If you're running Windows Vista, you may have to reinstall from scratch. With Windows 7, you have two options. One is to boot from the Windows Setup DVD, and select the Repair my system option. The other is to press F8 during the boot process to get the Windows boot menu and select Repair your computer.