Had massive probs with Compaq Presario C504EU notebook. Reformatted drives C and D. Reloaded Vista but won't register as a clean license has to be an upgrade. Reformatted and tried to load XP but it won't load because it can't see the hard drive so need to get hold of the hard drive drivers to load before I can carry on. Any ideas folks? I'm getting too old for this malarky. File system is NFTS quite happy with that as opposed to FAT32. Second hand Compaq so haven't got the original disks.
By the way, all my disks are pukka.

try windows 7, i reformatted my old toshiba from vista to xp, and it wouldnt run properly with xp, with 7 though its spot on, no issues at all

Haven't got 7, just trying Windows 98 at the moment to see if that will put the drivers on, scrabbling round like a mad man. Good job I've got this desk top. If I had DOS5 I'd give that a go, desperation. Went from 98 straight to XP and then Vista.

I'll be surprised if you need a driver for the harddrive for a basic setup, I know from windows xp onwards the only time a driver was needed is if your using a raid controller, personally I've never come across a laptop with one in, first question is can you see the drive in the bios ?, if so are you able to test it on another machine to test the drive is functioning ok and the only other thing you can do is try another drive in the laptop.

We've had this with a few laptops, you can see the hard drive in the BIOS, the drive is fine, you can even load Windows onto it using another machine, but that one won't see it.

It basically needs another set of drivers, I've made a Windows XP Home installation CD with these SATA drivers slipstreamed into it (much easier than doing it manually) if you want a copy just call into the shop and I'll sort you one out.

It is not illegal software nor does it bypass any COA keys it is merely a reengineered version of the Windows disc with the drivers included.

Doc, I'll take you up on that one cheers. I'll be going to see our kid tomorrow and will nip in then. I need it to get my Vista back on. You're a hero.

Silent Reader, thanks for that. A bit too complicated for my ageing grey matter. Will keep it in mind. The BIOS looks alright to me. Can't get a decko at CMOS for some reason but will keep at it. Cheers all.

Try changing the hard drive mode from ACHI to IDE in the BIOS.

All thanks to theDr and his staff. Laptop sorted, now happy again. 4 'puters going at the same addles my brain, can't think straight but at least thedoc sorted mine out and I sorted our kids out, result. Thanks again.