Windows Home Server: Stop Error 7B

I've found a lot of people having problems installing the Windows Home Server software when using RAID/SATA drivers. I had the same problem.

From most of the posts in forums I found the problem to be with the textmode part of the installation.

When booting from the WHS DVD it loads a windows Vista PE shell. When it asks for the drivers it loads them when provided so that it can see and configure the hard drives as necessary for WHS.

It then copies all the setup files for Windows 2003 Small Business Server (The core of WHS) onto the hard drive.

The system then reboots and you have to press F6 to load the required SATA/RAID drivers again. This seems to be where it fails most of the time as it can only load from floppy disks (which often people dont have/use any more) or it just fails loading the 2nd part of setup.

Here's an easy way to solve the problem:

Take your WHS DVD and copy it into a folder on your hard drive

Download nLite from www.nliteos.com theres a FAQ on their site, its pretty easy to use.

Useing nLite, direct it to the windows installation contained in the folder SVR_2003 (this is the Server 2003 installation files)

Integrate the drivers for your SATA/RAID controller into the installation.

Burn the files back to a new DVD.

Boot the new server from the original DVD and when it has loaded and is asking for the drivers for the SATA/RAID controller SWAP the original DVD for the new one you just made.

When it continues the installation it will copy the now updated files you made on to the hard drive with the controllers drivers already included.

Setup should now continue with no problems.

I've used this solution 3 times now when I had problems with the Intel IHCR9 chipset.