ok guys we have a acer aspire 5301 laptop and its been reset a few times so this is kinda routine but this time i have an issue

to start off the laptop loads the windows fine its currently running xp pro and its running ok normally

but every now and again we do a clean install to upgrade secuirty fixes blaa blaa blaa via xpcd's

well any ways this time upon doing the clean install,, we get about to the point of loading all the files but then thats it,, it wont go as far as hard drive layouts, meaning partitioning and so forth

it comes up with an error saying some thing like setup can not continue because the system cant find any hard disks

does any body have any ideals on why this error is happening,, at first i thought maybe it took a knock and got a loose cable but then i thought that couldnt be the cause because if i just let the laptop be,, it will load up just fine the os thats on it right now

this is a very strange issue,, does any body have any ideals on what we should do ?

problem fixed i change the AHCI mode to ide then it found the hd,,

thanks any ways guys,, sorry for the post