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What version of Windows are you trying to install?
And
Where did the product key come from?
...if you don’t mind.

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Windows 10 Pro. It’s the same volume product key (also listed on the Microsoft site here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... clientkeys) I’ve used for several installs. And again, this computer took the key just fine prior to freezing.

Good. I was actually going to point you to trying an OBK.

One more idea before I pass this issue on to a more experience in troubleshooting windows.
First: the make and model if it’s a branded PC.
Second: if there’s a built in video decoder (video ports on the motherboard) AND a separate video card you should probably remove the video card until after Windows is installed.
Third: hybrid drive issues.

Some branded manufacturers, such as fell and HP, use custom non-commercial parts. Like the highly integrate ESN motherboards, and Micron graphics. The only way to get these to work correctly is with the manufacturer’s drivers. That’s accomplished by using the original recovery disc or downloading the recovery tool kit from the manufacturer website if it was a recovery partition.

Video cards. These are a joy and a curse. And I’ve had a running debate with some writers and readers at the ZDNet sites over my 2012 HP, slightly older ATI video Cards, and Microsoft’s lack of support and outright lies. There are convoluted ways to force things to work. But the vast majority of late setup failures are caused by a driver issue and many can be traced to discrete video cards. Removing a card from a motherboard with it’s own video controller can solve many problems.

Hybrid drives. Hybrid drives are basically a hard drive and a SSD on one board attached to each other at the firmware level to be recognised as a single drive by the computer OS.
These can be a real problem for a bare install of Windows. Both drives will have the same external ID, to over simplify the issue. A simple firmware patch by a knowledgeable user could create two separate drives. This works well when it’s done with a small OS and after the install.
This is a two issue—issue. If the firmware has been patched windows will not recognise it without the software to access it, which is not on the windows disc.
On the other side even if the drive is not modified windows will still have some issues if it doesn’t have the exact driver for the exact drive on the disc. It will see a ghost as installation progresses and refuse to reboot.

One last note: Windows can take FOREVER to install. I’ve seen it hang for multiple hours before suddenly finishing. So if your stuck at 90-something percent and no prompt, walk away. Come back later... or tomorrow.

Prestep: make sure you don’t have any scratches or smudges on the DVD. Or use a different USB stick (preferably new) for the installation.

Step one. Remove any secondary video cards. Then do a full erase reinstall again.
If that fails and it’s a branded system the manufacturer will have their own installation kit. It’s usually free but can be up to $20 to order or download.

If it still fails after that you have some sort of hardware issue. A ram module with bad blocks. A HD with unrecorded bad sectors. A borked controller on the motherboard... etc.

After that I tend to give up if it’s not for someone specific. I don’t sell computers with a hard drive to begin with (though I may put a small SSD with windows, Linux, or U True 64 if it’s an expensive machine).
If I am fixing it for someone else I’ll start swapping components and running tests to track the problem down. Tech stuff. If it’s just a flipper I call it quits, test the video card and ram in a different system for resale and just scrap the machine.

On the flip side: You could throw in the towel and install Linux since it worked before. Then download a free torture test benchmark kit and verify it’s all working.

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I’m gonna start with RAM...some googling suggested the install error can occur if there’s not enough ram. It turns out this only had 2GB installed which is the bare minimum so if anything isn’t functional with those that’d automatically tip it into “not enough”. Here’s hoping it’s something stupid like that haha

I’ll report back later!

And that’s why I’m not a service tech. Lol. Never even crossed my mind.

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Put 8GB of RAM in...still no luck. Argh!

Damn. Sorry.
Back to my original thoughts. Pull video cards. If you can.
If the video is part of the motherboard you very well may need the manufacture’s install disc.
If you did the partition steps in order, GP it to ext3 and then let Windows format to NTFS, you more or less eliminated the hard drive as a fault.
It’s quite obvious the drive can hold windows. —there is the possibility you have a bad sector or sectors right at the end of where windows is trying to install on the disk: try a disk check from the windows installation tools—

At this point I’d personally actually do a fresh Linux install, knowing it worked initially, and see what happens. And if it works run a disk check from Linux.

Keep in mind you may ultimately just have a board with some component that is not Windows 10 compatible. If that’s the case there’s only two options. Not use Windows 10, or, modify or write a driver for the unsupported component and slip stream the driver during install.

Just a question to consider. Try installing 7? With 7 you can download the free Microsoft Windows 10 hardware tester which will tell you any hardware issues in black and white.

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Apparently all I needed was to burn a new install disc *forehead smack*

My current one had some scratches but it had worked just fine on the install I did only minutes prior to trying on this particular computer when all hell broke loose...anyway, all straight now. Lol

Lol.
I believe I mentioned something along the lines of looking at the disc. :D

Seriously; glad you got it worked out. Some drives are just PITAs.

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I recently did an install with a clean ISO dvd and the player would not boot off of it, I guess it couldn't read it so I put in another older ISO dvd with scratches on it and away it went installing the os. So it just goes to show that computers like to play games and mess with your head. As in everything in life we learn more by our mistakes then anything else since those are what stand out.