uefi ssd USB windows 7 x64 ultimate install error 0xc000000d

I know this is old thread, but I want to share how I managed to deal with this situation.

My laptop's BIOS also doesn't have CSM mode, although there is option to disable UEFI, but I still want to install Windows 7 64 bit on UEFI mode. So here is how I did it:

1) First, download some required tools:
a. Gandalf's WinPE 8.1 x64 ISO or any bootable windows 8.1 ISO you prefer. Since we can't boot windows 7 dvd/usb over uefi, we will use windows 8.1's help to install windows 7. WinPE 10 ISO might could be used too, but I only ever try with WinPE 8.1.

b. WinNTSetup (not needed if you use WinPE ISO above as it's been included). We will use this tool to install windows 7.

c. Download required Windows 7 drivers to be slipstreamed into windows 7 installer:

- Integrated Graphic Card driver. This depends on your processor. For example, my processor is intel skylake based, so I searched and downloaded Intel HD Graphics 530 driver.

This is the most important required driver, as from many of trials & errors, after I slipstreamed the Intel Graphic driver, the freeze problem was finally solved. It's probably because of UEFI uses GOP protocol rather than old VGA protocol (UGA) which the former is not supported with windows 7 installer, unless you enable CSM.

- USB 3.0 Driver. Probably not needed, but if your machine has usb 3.0 port, you might need it as windows 7 doesn't support usb 3.0 natively. Same as above, the driver depends on your processor. If your machine is Intel, the driver name is Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver (make sure you download the latest version).

- And other drivers you suspect it's required for the windows 7 installer. On my trial, I also included the Intel RST driver although I think it's not really needed at all.


2) Burn/write the WinPE 8.1 ISO to usb drive with Rufus (pick GPT scheme). You need minimal 4 GB or 8 GB usb drive.


3) Extract and copy the driver files into a new folder, you can name the folder "my_drivers" or anything you want.

Intel graphics driver is usually in form of EXE installer file, you can use 7-zip or any archiver tool to extract the driver files from the EXE file. The contents are numerous but what you only need is the "Graphics" folder. Copy that folder into the "my_drivers" folder.

For Intel USB 3.0 driver, just extract and copy the "Drivers" folder.


4) Copy the "my_drivers" folder to the WinPE usb drive or any external drive, or any way you want as long as it can be accessed by WinPE.

If you don't use WinPE ISO 8.1 above, you might need to copy WinNTSetup files too.

If your target machine doesn't have optical drive, you might need to copy the windows 7 dvd contents into the WinPE usb drive (if it still can hold them) or other external drive. We will need the dvd contents later.


5) Boot the WinPE 8.1 USB drive from target machine. You will enter the windows 8.1. It's just like running live linux cd/dvd but you got windows instead. If you have external drive that holds "my_drivers" folder and windows dvd contents, then plug it in.

Now you want to make sure you already have the 100 MB EFI boot partition on the target drive, if not, you have to create it first. There are many tutorials out there for this, but in case you don't care about deleting some partitions in target drive, you can just run the Windows 7 DVD installer inside the WinPE (ignore the "The procedure entry point ..." pop-up error message), select "Custom (Advanced)" after agreeing the license dialog, then you can delete and create new partition there, the EFI partition will be created automatically on the create new process. After it's done, cancel and quit the installer.


6) Run WinNTSetup. Look at this tutorial first to see how to use WinNTSetup.

In summary what you need to set:

Location of Windows files => path to your install.wim file. This file is part of the Windows 7 dvd contents. Browse the file into your windows 7 dvd folder.

Location of Boot drive => The EFI Boot partition drive. If all check icons are green, you're in right track.

Location of installation drive => This is where you want to install the windows 7, usually it's C drive. You can format the drive too by pressing small "F" button.


7) Next, check the "Add Drivers" option, browse to the "my_drivers" folder that contains the extracted driver files. With this option, we will slipstream the drivers into the windows 7 installer.


8) When you're ready press "Setup" button, accept the default options, and press OK.

It will create windows 7 installation files on the target partition (drive C). After it's done, restart the machine and boot normally, you would see windows 7 installer running.


9) That's it. Hopefully it helps.


If it's still failed or getting freeze, it could be you miss some drivers, or maybe other things we haven't known...~insert twilight zone theme song here~