Bob_H001

Thanks for the help will try this.

I use grub (winsetup) so I can't see how putting ntdetect.com in root would do anything, guess I'll have to change the way I'm doing this. Or does ntdetect.com need to be inserted into the XP installation? Sorry for the dumb question my brain is fried.

Hi I've tried so many times to get my external usb hard disk to install windows xp but just when I think I figured it out it BSODs. Firstly the error points to tons of webpages to do with the SATA drive mode, but, I have tried all 3 SATA modes and proved Windows XP Sp3 will install from a CD. Basically it gets to the Starting Windows blue dos screen and then BSOD's before reading the hard disk information. If I boot from the CD it does not do this and I built the USB installation off the same CD source. There's no message on the STOP error just the numbers 0x0000007b 0xf78d2524 0xc0000034 I've been trying several different methods using grub and have also tried xp SP2 but to no avail. Help me please before I go completely bald.

This is my home built PC which runs Vista great and I'm glad to see my HD is not the lowest score on W7 like it is on Vista.