This is how i solved a problem after 2 days of reading forums & manufacturers web sites that seemed no one had the answer to.
 
All the more frustrating & embarrassing for me as i'm an MCSE and SCSA.
I built a new system with a gigabyte GA81915P Duo installed XP Pro on to a single SATA drive, all workedhttp://www.ntcompatible.com/images/icons/icon_happy.png
http://www.ntcompatible.com/images/icons/icon_happy.png
Later that day i realised id been given the wrong Mboard. Went back & swoped it for a gigabyte GA81915P Duo Pro. You wouldn't think there would be any difference ???
XP would not load. Id get the 0X0000007B stop error.
 
There is a lot of crap out there about how to solve this problem.
First the false ones
1)Switch SATA to IDE channel 0
2)Don't have anythig plugged into IDE 1 slot
3)USB front pannel pins
4)SATA has to be master
5)ETC ETC ETC
 
How to fix this problem for real...
1) Go to the intel web site enter your chipset (example 915P)
2) Download the boot floopy.exe
3) open it create a boot disk
4) change your BIOS settings (more than likely diffrent for diffrent MB Manufacturers but hopefully you can get the drift)in intergrated peripherals to:
On Chip IDE (Enable)
SATA RAID (Disable)
On Chip SATA (Enhanced)
HW RAID (Enable)
5) Boot with your XP disk press F6 to load controlers (if you cant get your CD dive to work change your BIOS settings in Advanced BIOS Features, on the gigabyte MB the first option you see you press enter & move the card to first and SATA drive second, change this back after you've finished)
6) When you get to the part asking you to press "S" load your boot floopy in press "enter"
7) THIS IS THE PART WHERE THERE IS SO MUCH DIS-INFORMATION YOU DON'T NEED TO LOAD THE SCSI DRIVER WINDOWS ALREADY HAS A SUITABLE ONE INBUILT, YOU NEED TO LOAD THE AHCI 82801FR or 82801ER DRIVER...
8) you will have to reinstal Xp first dont use the recovery console unless you know what your doing but at the apropriate time select repair from 3 options givin to you later (the others being new install & exit) if you want to keep your old profile and settings.
9) Let it reinstall XP & away you go PROBLEM FIXED
http://www.ntcompatible.com/images/icons/icon_up.png
http://www.ntcompatible.com/images/icons/icon_up.png
 
 
Anouther few things about SATA/PATA and Raid:
 
With these new chipsets you can use diffrent size drives you just make the partitions the same size and you do that when you create the raid, no need to Fdisk.
You can create a raid and migrate the data later on if you only have one drive at the moment.
You can use MATRIX RAID to split two hard drives into two RAID partition sets, have stripping on one set of partitions & mirroring on the other set of partitions.
 
Hope this helps people out or at least get them on the right track because it seems to be a comon problem....http://www.ntcompatible.com/images/icons/icon_cool.png
http://www.ntcompatible.com/images/icons/icon_cool.png
 
EVEN HAPPIER NOW