i've had this problem before, it copies the setup files to the drive then when it comes to installing the OS you just get a blinking cursor, pissed me right off.
more than likely theres a problem with something the drive has called a master boot record or MBR for short.
what you should do is zero fill the drive, effectivly creating a new master boot record.
you can do this with only a few manufacturers hard-drive tools, do you know what the hard-drive manufacturer is?
well even if you dont, something like
http://www.dban.org will do the trick or kill disk