USB booting :: Help for newbie

Hi everyone

Right im new to linux and only had a look becuase I do a lot of data recovery work and feel that dsl on a usb drive is a convenient way of booting a computer and recovering files. However I booted from the live CD and tried to install many times to my memory stick (a creative thumb drive 128mb) but found it very difficult to install. When it finally installed (i could only get usb-zip to work) I changed my BIOS settings (ASUS A7V600-X) to boot from USB-ZIP but it just said INVALID BOOT DISK ERROR. Does anyone know if my hardware is compatible, what I am doing wrong, or an alternative method (floppy disk?) or distro. I dont want to use a CD as they always seem to get scratched up and I would like the data storage ability provided by a USB drive.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

original here.