Hard Drive Issue

I have a gateway m465 laptop. I had XP pro installed on it. I decide to do a clean install. After booting to CD(original) it would say no hard drive detected. So I tried Windows Vista Business Edition and got the same error. So I decided to go to Linux. I installed Ubuntu Hardy. I works great but I need to have Windows Vista installed as dual boot or just vista running. I did run virtual box on the linux OS but I did not like it. So my question is Why can I install Windows OSes on my laptop.
What I have done so far:
-updated BIOS
-check for hard drive drivers(none found)
-took it to compusa, circuit city, and a few other computer shops. They could not figure out the problem.
-took laptop to my old A+ professor he could not figure it out. He told me to use VirtualBox. lol
I am A+ and CCNA certified so I have tried the common solutions. Any help is fine.

Thanks In Advance.:cool

 

Thanks will take a look into it tonight. Is it possible to edit the OS (Vista) and add the drivers manually using BArtPE.
Linux installs fine on the Laptop I wonder why vista didn't come with the drivers already on the disk.

 

I haven't had the need but I believe many people use nlite to slipstream the sata drivers into an installation disk.

 

pldor makes a good point. We had a Dell desktop that we couldn't reload because it kept giving the "no hard drive could be found". We called Dell tech and the engineer said some of the SATA drives (certain manufactures) require you to load the 3rd party drivers before you can reload the OS. I would try downloading the SATA drives for your particular hard drive brand, and load then into the Windows Install. You should get an option to load 3rd party drivers.