Thanks mate, finally got it sorted, you were right i had to enable the sata ports and now it works fine again. I had to register my copy of windows tho, dunno if thats normal but dont really care, its a huge weight off my shoulders. Thanks again.
Check to see if your computer clock is set to the right time. When you clear the CMOS, it sets it to the year 2000, I believe. That would cause the need to activate Windows.