Can't install windows vista on wiped HDD

[Guest]

The hard drive was wiped clean so there is no OS on it. I am trying to a clean install Vista home on it but the hard drive can't be located. The computer had vista on it before and ran fine, so there shouldn't be anything wrong with the hard drive. So far I've tried formatting it with XP, and get to the setup screen and it says "unknown disk" and I can't select or format a partion. In the BIOS, my SATA hard drive is configured as AHCI, and there is no way to change it. My boot order is CD/DVD drive, Hard disk, Removable, then NVIDIA boot agent. Then I tested the HD on another PC, Bios still detects it, but windows doesn't. On boot it says "AHCI port 1 device error" S.M.A.R.T.. Capable and Status BAD. I can't use Native IDE Mode it says change boot media device, or something like that. And there are NO SATA drivers on the computer manufacturers website. I've exhausted all my options and don't know what to do. Can some please help me? This is very frustrating. Here are my specs:

E machines EL 1300-02W

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+ Processor (3.0 Ghz)
NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics
2GB DDR2 memory
160GB SATA II (7200 RPM) Western Digital Caviar blue hard drive

 

[Rosco2382]

Sounds like the HDD might be bad. When you get into the Windows Utility to install Vista on the HDD when you get the screen to set up the partions and format the HDD it doesn't appear there at all?