"Stop 0x0000007B" error after you use a Group Policy setting to prevent the installation of devices

This article helps to fix the error "Stop 0x0000007B" after you use a Group Policy setting to prevent the installation of devices.

Applies to:   Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7
Original KB number:   2773300

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

• You have a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
• You use the following Group Policy setting to restrict the installation of devices on the computer: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Device Installation\Device Installation Restrictions
  For example, you enable one of the following Group Policy settings:
  • Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs
  • Prevent installation of devices using drivers that match these device setup classes
  • Prevent installation of removable devices
  • Prevent installation of devices not described by other policy settings. For more information about this Group Policy setting, see Step-By-Step Guide to Controlling Device Installation Using Group Policy.
• You uninstall a third-party Serial ATA (SATA) controller driver and then restart the computer. Or, you run sysprep and deploy the OS image to another computer that has a different storage controller or that's running a different storage controller firmware revision.

In this scenario, you encounter a "Stop 0x0000007B" error during restart.

Cause

After you enable the Group Policy setting, the following registry entries are set so that access to the critical device database is prohibited and raw devices cannot be started:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PnP\DisableCDDB HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PnP\DontStartRawDevices
Therefore, the storage controller driver cannot be found, and you encounter the "Stop 0x0000007B" error.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, set the following registry entries to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PnP\DisableCDDB HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PnP\DontStartRawDevices
To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start the computer from Windows PE. To create a Window PE image, see Walkthrough: Create a Custom Windows PE Image.

2. Load the System registry hive for offline registry editing. The System registry hive is located in %SystemRoot%\system32\config. To do this, follow the steps in Load or unload registry hives.

3. Expand the System registry hive that you have loaded, and then click Select.

4. In the details pane, locate Current, and then note the value in the Data column.

5. Expand the following registry entry. (The x placeholder represents the value from the Data column that you noted in step 4.)HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet00 x \Control\PnP

6. Change the value of DisableCDDB and DontStartRawDevices to 0.

7. Unload the registry hive.

8. Restart the computer in the standard way.

Data collection

If you need assistance from Microsoft support, we recommend you collect the information by following the steps mentioned in Gather information by using TSS for deployment-related issues.