USB booting :: dsl on usb pen no boot anywhere

My plan was to have handy linux distro anywhere I have my laptops...not working out so well.

I have 2 "modern?" laptops which support booting removable disks and usb devices...however changing boot order does diddly.

When I <supposedly> am booting off of usb device...I get single blinking caret in upper left of window and nothing else...no disk activity, etc.

I cannot boot Toshiba P25-S609 satellite on usbpen drive w/dsl pre-installed....nor does my brand spanking new Dell Inspiron 9300 work. On both I changed bios boot sequence so removable devices/usb come first..

Any ideas?

From booting other os I have verified my pen drive did ship with linux filesys on it...just can't boot.

Have you succeeded in using your usb stick to boot any computer at all? And have you succeeded in using any liveCD to boot your laptops?

I have been unsuccessful in getting my Satellite A85-S107 to boot from ANYTHING. This is the main reason I intend to buy a new computer very soon. At the moment, I have to assume that a hard drive crash will mean total death.

original here.