USB booting :: USB  Speed Question

I've tried 2.2b and 2.3rc1 and both give the same results.

I took back my 1GB Memorex Travel Drive and bought a SanDisk Cruzer Mini USB Flash Drive 512 MB instead.

Same results  

Some notes that may help:
- once DSL is loaded it's speed seems to be normal
- i did a speed test with music files, and I was able to copy and move them to the usb pendrive very quickly
- therefore, the speed problem seems to be booting only
- I checked my motherboard manual and it really is usb 2.0/1.1 compatible

I want to install grub and see if this helps, but I have a feeling it won't make a difference but you never know.

Also does anybody know the command using sfdisk and changing the sectors/track??

Here is mine:
Disk /dev/sda: 512 MB, 512483328 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 488 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          50       51184    6  FAT16
/dev/sda2              51         488      448512    b  W95 FAT32

I'm pretty sure this can be done without altering the usb sticks data.
I know I read it somewhere I just have to try it.
Apparently some computers run better with a higher sectors/track when it comes to usb drives.  But I don't really know cuz this is all new to me.  I wouldn't mind trying 64/128/256 and seeing if there is any speed difference.

Enough babble for now, any help is appreciated and thanks in advance.
;-)