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I used my recovery disk to format my computer, but half way through it errored and quit.

After restarting the computer it said there was an error botting the OS. So I put in the Windows XP disk, and the blue screen booted up but then said that it couldn't find a hard drive, thus I can't install windows.

After searching for a while, I saw that I may need to install 3rd party drivers using F6 during the Windows install boot for it to recognize the drivers. The problem is that this is on a laptop that does not have a floppy drive so I can't see if this is the problem.

Anyone have any ideas?

Hi ObeyGiant. Welcome to the PCHF!

Can you please tell me the exact error message you receive?

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Unless you have an extremely newer laptop then it is more than likely that you do not have a SATA HDD and need 3rd party drivers for it..

Now you stated that you were using the restore discs to reformat when it BSOD'd. That tells me that you were having major issues to begin with.
It could be that your HDD died on you....

You can download a bootable CD that has a utillity that will check your drive. This will have to be on a computer with CD burning capabilities. There are certain things that you must do to get a Bootabl CD so please read the information thouroughly.

Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

The tool that you want to use is sea tools desktop. follow the download links and download the file ( I suggest the .exe version) from Majorgeeks
boot from the disc and look for the already installed sea tool program and run its disc diagnostics test. If it sees the hdd and checks it, it will try to repair it if possible...If it also says that it can't find the HDD then it may be that the cable inside the laptop is bad or has become disconnected.

There are 2 errors depending on what I'm trying to do. If I don't try to boot from CD it says:

error loading operating system.

And if i do boot rom CD it says:

Setup did not find and hard disk drives installed in your computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware information is correct. This may include running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Setup cannot continue. Press F3 to quit.

I got that program that you said, but it wouldn't give me the option to boot from that CD.

There is no option to boot from cd. You have to make Boot from cd rom your first boot choice in the bios. Once that is done then insert the disc and reboot the machine it should boot from the cd automatically or you did not burn the boot disc properly.

I downloaded the .exe file and then burned it to a cd. Should I just have downloaded the full Ultimate Boot Cd? I didn't see any special instructions like you had said.