I can't find a working XP driver for the SATA controller in the 7260 (m72sr). There isn't one for download at the sager sites or the clevo site and the windows driver doesn't seem to do the job. I believe it should just be an AHCI SATA driver.

Anyone else had any luck or have some clue where I can get it? I can't even install XP on the laptop.

At what stage are you in the install process?
What version of XP? (SP2?)

I've been trying to install Linux on mine, but it seems to stall with the install. Still working on that.

However, in my attempts, I put in a Dell Windows XP SP2 disk, and it booted up enough to format the drive and begin file copies. No problems. Obviously the Dell disk is locked to prevent running XP on non-Dell machines so I terminated the install.

Did you get a CD with the computer? What about the IDE drivers, on the CD:
/xp/00miniIDE

This seems to be a version of a SIS IDE Driver. It isn't clear if that is for the HDD or the CD, or both.

Are you sure your HDD is good? Have you tested it?

yeah, the laptop is fine, I've been using it for months. I just wanted to put XP on it instead of Vista.

I have XP SP2. I tried the drivers on the disc and still couldn't see the drive.

I switched it out of AHCI/SATA mode and installed XP fine. I'll see if the driver on the disc will let me switch it to AHCI/SATA. A lot of people are doing that with other computers it seems (installing XP in IDE mode then switching to AHCI/SATA).