Aiming at the catastrophic instability problem of gob-side roadways under the condition of directly overlying thick hard roofs in deep mining, No. 63up06 Face of Dongtan Mine was taken as the engineering background in this study. Field measurement, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation methods were comprehensively adopted to systematically investigate the instability evolution law and pre-control technology of roadways. Based on the principle of energy conservation, an energy criterion for burst instability was established with the comparison between the energy received by roadways and their anti-burst capacity as the core index, and the transmission and disaster-causing mechanism of dynamic loads induced by the fracture of thick hard roofs were revealed. The case analysis was conducted by applying the proposed criterion, and the results demonstrated that the dynamic load caused by roof fracture did not exceed the bearing limit of roadways under conventional conditions, which verified the effectiveness of the established criterion. A FLAC3D numerical model was constructed to quantitatively reveal the controlling effects of the spatial occurrence position and geometric characteristics of roofs. It was indicated that a closer distance between the roof and coal seam and a larger roof thickness were associated with a higher stress concentration degree of roadway surrounding rock, a more intense deformation response, as well as a wider influence range and a longer duration of high stress. On the basis of the above mechanisms, an active prevention and control technology system centered on deep-hole blasting roof cutting was proposed. The continuity of roof strata was cut off and the suspended roof length was shortened by this technology, so that the static load reserve was reduced and the dynamic load release intensity was weakened from the source, and the superposition effect of static and dynamic loads was effectively controlled. Field engineering practices showed that the advance stress concentration of roadways was significantly alleviated, the deformations of the roof, floor and two ribs were effectively controlled, and safe mining of the working face was realized after the implementation of the proposed technology. A complete research framework covering disaster mechanism revelation, risk criterion establishment and targeted prevention technology proposal was formed in this study, which provided theoretical basis and practical references for the stability control of gob-side roadways and the prevention and control of rock bursts under similar geological conditions.