Windows blue screens on install?

[th30nlyAket]

friend of mine wanted to upgrade his computer. get got everything new except case and graphics card. He tries install windows on his brand new hard drive and windows just blue screens before the install can really begin( does this with windows xp, 7 and 8.). We insert known working and old hard drive. It formats and then blue screens and will not install. Suggestions?

 

[WskOsc]

Your information is a little vague. How about posting the specs of your system, specifically the hard drives that you've having issues with. A more in-depth description of the 'blue screen' would be more appreciated too, such as if it's a true BSOD (as such it'd have an error code at the bottom e.g. STOP and a number starting with 0x) or whether any other text is displayed.

You've noted that it formats the drive but fails before installation, normally I'd say this is a hardware failure either on the arm or read-write head which is generally fatal to a HDD, but you say it happens on two different drives. Have you considered trying the install by putting the HDD in a different and fully functional machine and then transferring back to the 'new' machine if it's successful?

 

[th30nlyAket]

the only thing i can see on the blue screen is a irql not less or equal and yes i used the working harddrive with windows install and everything form the computer im on into the machine and it just blue screens

 

[WskOsc]

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is typically caused by a driver or hardware conflict.

If your HDD is an IDE make sure you have it plugged into the slot on the end of the cable and set the jumper to the 'master' position. If the HDD is S-ATA then try moving it to a different S-ATA slot and replace the cable while you're at it just to be sure.

If you're unsure about S-ATA slots refer to the motherboard's manual and it'll indicate which S-ATA slot is Slot 0 or Slot 1 on the hardware diagram or on the instructions for connecting S-ATA devices.