Windows 10 REFUSES to install to new Evo SSD - though runs on dying HDD

I see a couple of other posts here which are similar to mine, but not quite. I sure hope someone can help with this one. I've been building & installing computers for years and I'm totally stumped.

I have a friend's Sony Vaio PCG-31311W laptop and have offered to install an SSD for him as his current HDD is failing. I managed to move his data off of it, but the laptop reports it's failing at every boot. It's currently running Win 10 Home & is activated.

The HDD is 500gb & the SSD he gave me is 250gb. I said it would be best to just reinstall a new copy of 10 rather than try anything like shrinking/cloning his failing drive (it's extremely slow to respond to anything).

I have a DVD of Win 10, which I've used previously & it is in pristine condition physically. It hung at the “create a partition” section. I cancelled & shift/F10 to try running diskpart/clean. I got, “an I/O error”. 0X80070057.

So, I used the MS media creation tool to make a bootable USB installer of Win 10. Created & verified successfully. So far, so good.

I boot it and get to the “where to install” screen (shows the SSD) click “next”.....aaaand that's where we sit. For a looooong time.

The laptop eventually stalls at “copying Windows files 0%” then stops the install with: “couldn't install to the location you chose, check your media”. The error code is 0x80300025.

If I click “new” instead of “next”, I get “we couldn't create a new partition/error 0xd4066010”.

If I shift/F10 & go to “C:”/dir, the boot files are there, so I know it can be written to-- but something else is stopping the show?

As this is a brand new Samsung 860, I doubted a drive issue but booted up Seatools and ran the long test-- it says it's all good.

The media IS good, according to MS's verification process.

I pulled the HDD out of one of my own laptops and installed Windows using the USB/SSD that isn't working on the Vaio & it proceeded w/o issue-- so I KNOW they are good. I also used GParted from a live Linux to erase & format to NTFS (a forum suggestion) then ran the Win 10 installer again-- no go.

There's not much to alter in this laptop's BIOS-- there's boot order & whether or not to enable VM's-- the rest is nothing. It doesn't have a choice of ACHI/IDE, I also see nothing about legacy vs EUFI, so assume it's pre-secure boot as well.

Any ideas what to do from here? I know it can run 10 because that's what it was running on it's HDD! :(

Thanks everyone.

EDIT/Update: Last night, I appempted to install to a 120GB Sandisk in the Vaio. Who knows, maybe it's a compatibility issue w/the Evo's? If the 120GB runs, then I'll do a clone.

Later-Okay, the 120GB Sandisk installed fine, it's about to boot to the desktop for the first time.

I wonder if it's something to do with the Samsung controller or (maybe) the V-Nand? I have no idea, but those are two differences in the drives.

Once it's fully running, I'll try to clone it over to the Evo & see if it boots. I'll let you know!

So, the Sandisk runs in the Vaio perfectly. I cloned to the 860 & it booted, but slowly. I installed the Samsung Magician software and it couldn't initialize a few of the drive optimizers. I noticed it detected it at 232GB (after format), yet showed it as 111GB in size? So, I went into computer management to extend C: to the full drive capacity (done this before to dozens of drives). In this case, it says it's failed (of course), yet the management window showed C; taking the entire (232GB) space? I figure, restart & check again. Nope. In disk management, it says C: is 232, in explorer & the Sammy software, it's 111GB.

Plan G: make a system image of the Sandisk to an external HDD and install from that. Image created successfully. I left it installing to the 860, for 2 hours, and nothing had happened. Cancel.

Install to my own 750 EVO. It works, there are snags, but it's in. I grab the 13 Mar cumulative MS update and run it. Right now, it's running okay and the only hiccup is the Sammy Magician still showing the V 1002 error.

As I type, I'm using a toaster to clone the 750 to the 860. We'll see how it goes using disk-to-disk capacity and also using a fully up-to-date Win 10.

I had a similar problem installing windows 7 to an SSD. My solution was a clean install to a partition of the right size on an HDD and cloning that, which worked well. The only thing I had to check was the number of free blocks before the partition Is 103424K an optimal SSD alignment and why?