Tons of problems installing

I have been trying to install a dual boot copy of zorin 6.1 64-bit and I have been having a lot of problems. I have tried multipule CD's to make sure my image was good. Checksum was fine. I can't do anything at boot menu except go to Live. When I go to live, my graphics are all over the place. things flash up when not there anymore and flicker enough that getting around is tough. Then when I do get through the install and it tells me all is good and to restart, I get grub and the option to go into Zorin or Windows. When I select Zorin, I get an error that I need to install the Kernal first. Not the first time installing an operating system but for a system trying to attract windows users, this has been one of the most frustraiting. I have even scrubbed the first install and tried again with same results. So... whats next? Any ideas? System is an Intel 3470 with a Nvidia 660, 8gb RAM, and 2TB drive (400GB set aside for Zorin).

This is a i5 desktop. A newer gaming custom. As I stated, the menu ONLY works if I go to Live first. It just stares at me if I try to select anything else. If I select recovery mode after install is complete it runs a script and then nothing. When I do get the installer going, it seems to go through the install just fine. Yet after I restart and select the new install it tells me the kernal is not installed. Any help is appriciated since it looks like a great distro I would love to try. Thanks ahead of time.

So basically the auto installer is broke? I set aside 400GB unallocated and after selecting install zorin 6 it asks if I want to install it alongside. When I say yes, it does not give me any option of partitioning but it seems to make a swap and an ext 4 using the rest. So is this wrong and broken? Am I forced to create my own partitions and grub? I never had much luck with that and don't want to screw my windows boot in the process. It is a Custom machine built by a company. So its not a dell, hp, etc... I would clasify it as more homebrew even though I bought it built.

OK, I tried the above but I think I just screwed it up even more. I used Live and Gparted to free up all the partitions set aside originally. So I started with a 2TB drive with:

/dev/sda1 ntfs system reserved 100MB Boot
/dev/sda2 ntfs 1.4 TB win 7
400GB+ free space

I created two partitions:
primary ext4 with a mount point of / with all but 16GB of free space
used the rest of space to create a extended swap
And at the option, I selected boot loader drive of sda1 on the drop down box.

Installed again. No errors. Restarted.

Now I am getting a GRUB error. GRUB recovery? I rebooted back into Live now since I can't even get into windows now and looking at Gpartd, it does not even resemble what I created that much.

It is showing:
/dev/sda3 ext4 407.58gb
/dev/sda4 extended 14.9gb
/dev/sda5 swap 14.9gb

I am not sure if its even installed properly still. I am not sure if from the start its all been GRUB errors or if its something deeper.

This is a good suggestion for you to think of considering, if have or can acquire another HD. Is have a setup where as the 2 TB HD is Partitioned 500 Gb for Win7 and 1.5 TB for Media/Data = NTFS and the second drive is strictly for Zorin OS. That way if something goes haywire, your safe all the way around. Believe me and I'm sure Swarfendor will tell you the same thing, that having separate drives is a way to go. If you happen to decide on this setup, it would be a good idea to unplug the 2 TB HD when installing Zorin OS as a added safety measure..

500 GB>>>> D1=Primary

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 1.5 TB D1 Partitioned NTFS = Media/Data = >>>>>>> 2 TB = Zorin OS or Win7

500 GB>>>> D2=Primary