Try putting your old drive back into your system and then use it to prep your new drive connected to the Universal adapter with Mountain Lion. Then try it again with the new HD installed.
Or
Do you have a second Mac system which you can connect via Ethernet or FireWire putting your system into target mode with your new HD installed. Then prep you new HD with Mountain Lion and connect your old HD to your friends system using the universal adapter to migrate your files over to your new HD.