device driver problem while re-installing windows on Inspiron 1721

Hi there-

I wanted to upgrade my inspiron 1721 laptop with Vista 32 bit to windows 7 64 bit.

In the windows setup i couldn't choose on which partition or drive to install to, because it didn't show any.

It said something like " cannot find the device driver, make sure it is on the installation disk"  (i'm translating this from the dutch version)

Downloaded several drivers to try, but no succes.

Then i took the vista cd and after trying a few times it found the required driver. I could now see the hard disk and it's partitions. I deleted all the partitions, created new ones and started to install windows 7.

But when after installation it tried to start up from the hard disk it didn't work. Obviously the 32 bit drivers from vista were in conflict with 64 bit windows 7.

Then i read on the dell website that the inspiron 1721 laptop isn't compatible with windows 7. (!!?)

In the end i decided to re-install vista, however it now gives me the same situation as with windows 7.

It cannot located the harddrive to install to, and worse, it can't find the drivers anymore on the vista cd neither.#%&*)

As i cannot find a topic about this issue anywhere i hope somebody can tell me here what is going on.

Many thanks in advance!

-Leon