Error whilst Reinstalling OS X (10.7)

Hey all,

I recently ran into an issue with my Mac (late 2012 Macbook Pro). I was riding a shuttle to work and tried installing a logitech utility for my wireless mouse. The installation stalled out and gave me some error message that I don't remember. So, I figured I'd try installing it again after restarting my computer. Bad choice. On restarting, I got an error saying something along the lines of "disk read error". (I think my Mac was trying to boot to my Windows Partition after being unable to boot into OS X) "Well poopy" I say to myself. I tucked it away, planning to fix it later.

At home later that day, I pull it out and try to boot up again, but get either the same disk read error or the OS X equivalent (a crossed out circle, if I recall [not the ? folder, that comes later]). I do a bit of googling and come up with the Internet Recovery option on startup. I get into that and try doing some disk repair. It fails after a few hours, saying it's high time to start praying that I backed up my files recently, because it's reformat time. Well, I'm tired of having a slow HDD, so I take this as an excuse to buy a SSD (Samsung 850 EVO 500GB). And I set out to install OS X onto that.

After installing the new hard drive, I boot again into Internet Recovery mode. I use Disk Utility to format the drive partition into a Mac OS X (Journaled) partition with the GUID partition table. Just as a sanity check, I run the disk verification tool. It tells me there are errors and I need to repair. Obviously, this sends up some red flags, having JUST formatted the drive. I repeat the formatting process, and have the same result. I figure, what the hey, maybe its supposed to be broken (o.O). Now I go to install OS X (Lion). It predicts it'll take several hours to download, so I leave it for a while. Sometime before I expected it to finish, I hear the sounds of it restarting and excitedly run in to find the accursed blinking ?-Folder. I try this several more times (formatting the drive and doing the install) and always get the same result, but I never see the restart occur.

Today, I watched the install download from start to finish (on a much faster internet connetion). I even watched the detailed information. It successfully downloaded all 449 (or however many) components, and restarted (presumably to boot into the install disk newly downloaded onto my SSD). I was disappointed, but hardly surprised when it again showed the ?-Folder. Booting back into the Internet Recovery disk (where I am now typing this into Safari) shows the SSD still formatted and partitioned, and it shows the partition as bootable. But it won't boot.

I'm beginning to think there may be an issue with something motherboard-related, but don't want to jump to serious and scary conclusions. Has anybody seen this issue before, or have any ideas how to solve it? I have two ideas remaining: the first is to transplant the SSD into a friend's Macbook and install OS X there, then replace it in my computer. The second is to take it to the Apple store. I'm reticent to try either, so would love any suggestions you can field.

Thanks in advance.

-AJ