Like several other people who posted in these comments, I was getting the following errors on install:
A critical error has been found during analysis: {0}
Cannot write to the Domain Container in the AD.
A critical error has been found during analysis: {0}
Cannot write to the Configuration Container in the AD.
A critical error has been found during analysis: {0}
Cannot write to the Organization Container in the AD.
After a couple hours of fiddling, I finally figured out the problem. I am running 2 VMware virtual machines, a DC, and the E12 server. However, the E12 server was set to point to the VMware gateway for its DNS, instead of to the DNS server running on the DC. I changed the primary DNS server to the IP address of the DC, then went to a command prompt and ran "ipconfig /registerdns" to create a record for my DC on the DNS server. Once I did that, the entire pre-check process completed in under 15 seconds, and installation went without a hitch.