Question XP installation freezes over and over again

[el_yel_]

There's an old game I used to play a lot a couple of years ago that last worked with Windows XP, so I bought an old used Windows XP laptop. First thing I did was trying to install a fresh copy of XP that the seller sent me, but the installation gets stuck over and over again. First time everything froze when 39% of the files were copied, second time everything froze during the final stages of installation, then I did a complete format of the drive before installation, which finished flawlessly, but everything froze when 6% were copied, now, trying again, it's stuck at 7%. The screen is still on and it sounds like the HDD is working. Any idea what I might try?

 

[USAFRet]

In this order:

Bad installation media
Bad hard drive
Bad something else (the laptop in general)