Okay so I have built a computer with all compatible parts and go to install Vista Ultimate (old I know) and i get to the install screen (files, updates, etc) and once it got to the "completing installtion" step the computer froze up. I let it sit all night and upon waking up it was on the same screen/step and had made no progress all night.
I go to restart the computer and try to resolve the problem but once it restarts, at this point it recognized an OS on the HDD and began to boot Vista - ya know the black screen that has a rectangular box at the bottom with the green block things scrolling through it and "Microsoft Corporation" below that. After that screen it gives me the colorful (blue and green) vista screen reading "Please wait..." and an error that says "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unknown error. Windows installation cannot proceed. Please restart computer to continue installation." Or something very similar to that.
Every time I go to restart it just gives the same error, even when i try to boot from the disc. I talked to Microsoft for half an hour with no prevail and they just told me it's most likely a HDD problem. So I come to yall for any sort of advice since I don't have extra blank hard drives just laying around.