help can't reformat laptop to vista?

hi my laptop is originally vista, it was reformatted to xp by a friend and i want to return it to vista.

problem is when i try to install vista after booting the dvd, cmd appears and i can't use my keyboard to type anything (im supposed to dype drive>setup.exe, right?). i figured what if i reformat to xp then just do an upgrade, but after booting the xp when i try to reformat, it says there are no hard drives installed or not powered on. well obviously there is a hdd coz i can still bootup xp.

is this about the configuration my friend to to downgrade to xp? please help. thanks

is this because of the change in sata to ide changes done by downgrading to vista?

I'd be surprised if you changed from SATA to IDE; are you sure this is what happened? Changing that sort of thing in a laptop is impossible on many and a big hassle to do on the few that can.

It almost sounds like a BIOS problem, given that it won't recognise your hard drive or keyboard. When you boot the DVD it shouldn't bring up the recovery console immediately - It should put you into a screen where you can choose to install or recover. If you choose install, it should then start loading some files, followed by the Vista partitioning tool. Do you know if your friend downgraded your BIOS?

Can you give more information about the laptop?

im getting this error.. so proabably my friend did something about that sata-> ide, no?

Resolving "Setup did not find any hard disk drives" during Windows XP Installation :: the How-To Geek

also, the problem with installing vista, might be because of this error?

to be clear this is my problem when installing to vista

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/2749/kif0461ka4.jpg

and ive done some research.. WinBeta.org > Windows Vista boot up problem

SATA and IDE are physical hardware connections that connect your hard drive to the motherboard of your computer. To change from IDE to SATA, you literally have to take the hard drive out of the computer and put a new one in, and that's only possible if your motherboard has cables for both IDE and SATA. I don't think I've ever seen a laptop which has connections for both, since there's only room in a laptop for one hard drive. So let me just clarify here, your hard drive type is SATA, not IDE.

First, I'll explain the error you're getting when booting from an XP CD. In order for your motherboard to speak to your hard drive correctly, it has a piece of hardware called a SATA controller. The problem you're getting is that the SATA controller on your motherboard is newer than the XP installation CD, so the drivers for it aren't present on the CD and as a result your motherboard doesn't know how to speak to the hard drive correctly. The page that you linked (this one) contains instructions for how to make an XP installation CD that DOES contain the required SATA controller drivers. If you follow that process you will be able to install XP.

As for the Vista error, the thread that you linked to is three years old, and from before Vista was released to market. It would suggest that the Vista disc was burnt either with errors in the burning process or in the image file itself. What version of Vista are you trying to install? Is it a legitimate copy or downloaded? Can you give more information about the laptop? What are its make and model?

windows vista ultimate.. just downloaded. laptop is toshiba satellite m200. i researched the error i found several people getting the same problem as mine (eg.Administrator X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe - Tech Support Forum) but i can't find the solution. is this an issue with my vista installer? i brought it to some computer shops and they tried their installers and im still getting the error. when that pop-up i cant even use my keyboard to type anything.