I ran into the blue screen of death a couple of times on my machine for no apparent reason. I don’t even recall installing any new software or drivers. And all of a sudden running into the bsod made me panic because of the important files I was having on my machine. 

The stop error code/message(s) that I got was :

"driver_irql_not_less_or_equal" error 
stop: 0x000000d1(0x00000038,0x00000002,0x00000000,0xF7673DFA) 
iaStorA.sys - address f7673dfa base at f7665000, datestamp 40608c73

Machine I was using:

HP ENVY 4 - Windows 7 OS 64 bit

Solutions I tried (that didn't work :/ )

These were some of the solutions I tried to recover from the bsod.But I wasn't very successful

Safe Mode Boot

I tired booting up my laptop on Safe Mode so that I could

a. … go find what this iastor.sys driver was and maybe update it or reinstall it. I failed.
b. …do a system restore if a). fails 

Hard Disk Issue Check

In order to check if there was a problem with my hard disk, I ran Ubuntu, just to check if I can access my files. I found out that even this step worked fine. I was able to view my files (and backup some of the data to my pendrive).

You dont necessarily have to install Ubuntu on your partition. Just run it (boot your pen and then go along with the wizard to just try it rather than install it.).

Create your ubuntu bootable usb using this tool : http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

 

The hard way – Is Formatting the only option?

When all failed, I thought I had only one choice , and that was to format the machine. 

"Do you have to format your machine then?"

HELL NO!!!

I am going to show you how you can recover from your bsod without re-installing Windows, with just a usb bootable pendrive with some OS installed and an internet connection to download some drivers and your mother's machine:D

Solution that actually worked

The problem:

If you can see your hard disk and be able to transfer files and all that nonsense, then it is not actually a Hard disk fault. 

My guess is that there is some problem making your drives not show up. Some kind of a driver that was actually missing or faulty.

Solution: 

On your mom's machine,

1. Create a bootable pen drive with whatever OS you have (I tried with Windows 8). Use the “Windows 7 USB DVD Download tool” to make a bootable pen for you. For this step, I think you can try your recovery CD if you have one (but I am not sure). Or if your computer is UEFI based, read this article : http://tipsandtricksforum.com/thread-245.html.

2. Go to the HP support site and download a storage driver for your lap model. (Doesn’t even have to match the same machine type, but atleast somewhat close).

Detailed steps:

• Go to http://www8.hp.com/us/en/support.html
• Search for your Laptop model. If you don’t find the exact model, try a related one.
• Select the OS.
• Then you will see a list of available drivers for your model (scroll down).
• Go to Driver - Storage
• Download Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver
• Run the .exe file.

3. Once you run the .exe file, a folder called SWSETUP would be created in your C drive. Follow the breadcrumbs in the image below and copy this x64 file holding all the files. Now you know that your iaStorA.sys file was missing and thats why your bsod was coming up. 





4. Paste this folder into the new bootable usb that you created. 

 
On your faulty machine...

5. Now run the Windows installation on the lap and when you reach the tab that asks you where you want to install your OS (which will be empty and there will be an error like “Windows couldn’t find any drives. To get a storage driver, click Load driver.”). 





6. Click on “Load Driver” and go to the folder that we just pasted onto the bootable usb (x64 folder from step 4)

7. Now you will be able to see the drives. 



8. Don’t worry. You don’t have to install Windows. You can now skip the installation.

9. Reboot your laptop. Don’t forget to remove the pen drive. Now your laptop is back to normal.

So, this is what helped me from the bsod without having to reinstall windows again. There maybe many more solutions out there. But this is a pen-down of my own way of recovering from this particular blue screen. I don't know if it will help. If it does, then I am glad. :)