Persistent Installation Error (support files)

Question

I cannot install Snow Leopard. I have researched and tried a lot of different methods. I have gone through the installation over ten times, and nothing works. This is ridiculous. The same disc worked on the same machine a month ago. Snow Leopard was running on the same MacBook, without any problems during the first installation, and now it fails repeatedly. Here's what happened:
I got the "invalid node structure" error and had to erase and zero-out the internal disk. Disk Utility later verified that the disk was fixed, and no further errors were reported. I also used DiskWarrior to verify this, and it also reported no further errors.
I proceeded to install Snow Leopard, but at the "15 minutes remaining" waypoint it stalled with the "Installer could not copy the necessary support files" error message. I repartitioned the drive, ensuring it was Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) with the GUID Partition Table. I got the same error.
I used Disk Utility to verify the installation disc, and it checked out with no errors. The surface is clean with no scratches. This is the same disc I used a month ago, which installed without error, so it's not the disc.
I thought maybe the optical drive was having trouble reading the disc. I got another machine and used Target Disk Mode to install it remotely, but it stalled with the same error at the same waypoint.
I read that RAM could be causing issues. There are 2 DIMMS, so each was removed under two separate installation attempts. The same error.
I used a USB external drive and had Disk Utility make a bootable partition. I then copied the Snow Leopard installation DVD to the partition, and used the USB drive to boot and start the installation. It stalled with the same error at the same waypoint.
I used a Windows Vista installation disc to repartition the hard disk, curious if it would discover errors. I formatted everything to unallocated space. I then used Disk Utility to repartition and zero-out the disk once more, ensuring the Journaled and GUID scheme once more.
It's not the disc. It's not the internal hard disk. It's not the optical drive. It's not the RAM. It's not the USB drive. There are no peripherals connected. They all return the same error at the same point during installation.
I can install Leopard fine. This post is being written on the same machine under Leopard. So there isn't some disk error that the repair utilities aren't reporting. Everything is running smoothly.
I have tried to install Leopard, then upgrade to Snow Leopard, but it stalls and won't finish either. I have tried this route twice, but each time it will stall at the "one minute remaining" waypoint. If I force restart and resume the installation it gives the "support files" error again.
So at this point I have exhausted all the installation methods that I'm aware of. This is so frustrating. I want to figure out why the installation fails. Does anyone know of any other methods? I refuse to accept this cannot work for simply no reason, there has got to be something else wrong. Does anyone have advise?

Answer 1

I have tried to install Leopard, then upgrade to Snow Leopard, but it stalls and won't finish either. I have tried this route twice, but each time it will stall at the "one minute remaining" waypoint.
How long are you letting it go at that point? I just upgraded an old PowerPC machine from Tiger to Leopard here yesterday. Amusingly, the installer jumped from over 3 hours to 11 minutes within a ten minute period. That last 11 minutes took about an hour, with most of that time spent at "one minute remaining." I've never seen such a long minute in my life! But, I just let it go until it finally finished, which it did. I've seen similar behavior in other Apple installers/updaters and would not be surprised to see it in the SL installer.
As to the error message you keep getting, that seems at odds with your assumption that all involved drives/disks are fine. There have been some bad SL disks reported, but since you've installed SL from this disk before, I'd say that's not the problem. That leaves your machine. Somehow, I think that you've got a hardware problem that has cropped up since the last time you installed from this disk on this machine. The fact that the disk checks out with Disk Utility and DiskWarrior may simply mean that the drive is in the early stages of failing. Or it might be some other hardware. Do you have an Apple Store nearby?
I don't think that R C-R's idea about phoning home is correct, as I installed SL while booted from the SL disk. I could be wrong, but I think you would have to manually connect to a wireless network while booted from the install disk, and I did no such thing, which means I was not connected to a network at all when I installed SL. This is not to say that SL doesn't phone home, only that it shouldn't cause a failure if the connection can't be established.