Anyone else running into this problem.

Windows Vista Premuim upgrade; after the first boot you have a BSOD with a STOP Message of 7B.
SATA drives configured in a RAID1 array.
Safe-mode stops immediatlely after loading disk.sys.

7B seems to indicate a inaccessible boot device.
I don't want to compromise my SATA to PATA because I shouln't have to.
No problem recognizing the Array as the boot menu and initial files are read from it.

Vista Upgrade Advisor told me I was good to go (not exactly in those words).

I attempted the repair option on the setup DVD and no luck there.

Bitdefender and Mcafee show my boot sectors as clean, no virus that I know of.

Any pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am in process of setting up Vista upgrade on my laptop [using it right now in fact]. No problems so far- I have been testing Vista RC1 for several weeks on my test computer and some of my old programs won't work properly - esp. file managers with built-in zip as folders and antivirus programs. Don't download malicious removal tool.
You did mention upgrade- you need a base install of win2k/xp/nt to install upgrade properly.

I am upgrading from within WINXP Pro.

Did you load the SATA drivers from your controller manufacturer or are you using the SATA drivers included in Vista?

Because I am going the upgrade route there is no option to supply the third-party SATA drivers. At least not that I am aware of.

I generally assume that Vista would use it's own SATA drivers.

I made sure I had XP running the latest SATA drivers prior to the upgrade attempt.

My motherboard is a FOXCONN 975 using Intel ICH7R SATA controller.

If you have a dvd and a cd/dvd drive then try All Drivers DVD available on many forums and boot from a live cd - it may find drivers you need.

So yes I was able to install Vista although I did have to revert my SATA RAID to SATA IDE. This is what I wanted to avoid in the first place.

It was obvious the problem was i/o related as the 7B STOP code points to inaccessible boot device. Now that the IHC7R SATA controller is running in SATA IDE it obvious that the mode SATA RAID mode of the IHC7R does not like the Intel Drivers packed w/Vista.

If turn RAID on again and the drive will be recognized and halfway through the boot it stops at loading the disk.sys file; just as it did before.

Seems I'm not the only out there http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=947248&SiteID=17