Fix Failed Vista to Windows 7 Upgrade with Error iastor.sys (error 0xc0000359)

In past we has covered fix for improper Vista to Windows 7 Upgrade & Windows 7 Hibernation error. Yet another problem has been uncovered which is related to failed Windows Vista to Windows 7 upgrade due to Intel storage drivers iastor.sys (error 0xc0000359).

Following error message is displayed “\$windows.~bt\windows\system32\drivers\iastor.sys. Status: 0xc0000359. Windows failed to load because a critical system driver is missing or corrupt”.

Microsoft has published manual steps to fix above error in article KB2008373. For your convenience we have covered those steps here.

Fix Failed Vista to Windows 7 Upgrade with Error iastor.sys (error 0xc0000359)

1. Access Driver Repository Folder under C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository and move any folders that contain the file: iastor.inf to a temporary location.

2. Search for references to iastor within the oem inf files in the c:\windows\inf folder – Example Command: findstr /i /c:”iastor” %windir%/inf/oem*.inf.

3. Make a note of the oem##.inf files reported where ## is a numeral. Move the oem##.inf and corresponding oem##.pnf from c:\windows\inf folder to a temporary folder.

4. Delete $~bt, $~LS and $~Upgrade folders from c:\ drive if they exist

5. Download and install the latest version of the iastor.sys driver from Intel website on the Vista machine.

6. Start the Windows 7 upgrade process. It should complete successfully now.