laptop says that the hard drive is missing or not installed properly

[jnt326]

I also tried to partition my hard drive to install xp instead or vista... my daughter restarted my comp on a newly formatted partition with no operating system.  I can load from cd but I have no idea what could work.  Right now all the laptop says is BOOTMGR is missing. 
Any suggestions would be great, I tried searching around here for an answer and tried a few things like the PC inspector site.

[Deerpark]

We need more info here..
When did the problem start and what happened prior to this?
Can you give us the make and model of the laptop?
What operating system (if any) is currently installed on the laptop?

[jnt326]

The laptop was running fine before this, I just wanted to put XP on it.  Vista basic is on the laptop somewhere but i can not access it because the active partition was formatted and then restarted before I could install xp.
It is an Aspire 5315- 2153.

[Deerpark]

In order to continue/restart the XP installation all you should need to do is insert the XP cd in your cd/dvd drive and boot from it.
If you restart the computer with the XP cd in the drive you should get a message saying something like "Press any key to boot from CD". When you press a key the XP setup will start.

Have you tried that?

[jnt326]

yes i did try that and that is how I got the message that there was no hard drive to load it to.  It said that the hard drive was missing or not installed properly.  The disc did try to load it went on and installed a few things.... it was going so fast I could not read it, but then the error screen came up about the hard drive and that installation could not be completed.

[Deerpark]

I believe your problem is that the hard drive is a SATA hard drive. The XP setup may need extra drivers in order to detect your hard drive. Unfortunately Acer doesn't appear to have any drivers available for XP and furthermore in order to load the driver you will need a floppy drive.
The first problem can possibly be overcome but the second is kinda hard to get around. Do you have an external floppy drive or can you manage to borrow one?

[patio]

Since it is a laptop you may have to use the Restore CD in the meantime and take it back to Day One status...then research and collect all the XP drivers needed to run that machine.

[jnt326]

Not to sound to completely ignorant, but the floppy drive you mean the old little disk things......... I had one threw it out in the trash a few years ago.  I figured I would never use it again.  I thought there might be a way to link my two computers together, and search for the hard drive that way.
Even if I can not fix it I am not out too much money, with two toddlers and a baby you do not put much money into things that can and do break.

[Deerpark]

Not to sound to completely ignorant, but the floppy drive you mean the old little disk things......... I had one threw it out in the trash a few years ago.

Yes, they're also known as diskette drives.

I thought there might be a way to link my two computers together, and search for the hard drive that way.

Link your computers together in order to install XP that way? No, sorry, there would still be the problem of the XP setup not being able to detect your hard drive.