Is your usb stick bootable? Not all are just as not all CDs or DVDs are
bootable.

How do I know? I have no idea really.

The best way is to use unetbootin to create the install usb. It can use an
iso file already downloaded, or download the necessary itself iirc.

You need to make it bootable by adding some files. A good site for this is
pendrivelinux.com. They have Windows and Linux instructions.

I used the usb-creator app from Ubuntu.
Not good enough eh?

techie-buzz.com/.../create-bootable-ubuntu-10-04-installation-disk-with-\
unetbootin.html

<http://techie-buzz.com/foss/create-bootable-ubuntu-10-04-installation-disk-with\
-unetbootin.html>Follow
that through, and you shouldn't have any trouble. If you do, then it's not a
problem with your usb stick, but most likely the bios settings..

It's plenty good enough, assuming you have a computer with a CD/DVD drive. If
all you have is a netbook and no external CD, it won't work.

you do NOT need a CD/DVD drive to create a USB startup with
Ubuntu. At least not with 10.04.

I,ve used it many times writing the .iso file using 'Usb Start up Disk
creator' If you have a problem check the flags in Gparted and leave only 'boot'
set at the same time format to Fat16 or 32.

It must be my laptop. I have a Gateway Nx5705s thats not reacting to the
usb drive. In the BIOS I have usb stick at the top for booting and I
have tried all the usb ports but its still not catching it.

I did a in place upgrade for now. It was very!!!! slow but - didnt want
to run to Walmart for cd's just for this

I have tried booting from usb pen and no success. My USB pen has
two partitions on the first only 2mb used as a lock the second is 2gb I
used 'Usb Start up Disk creator' and it saved to the 2gb partition but
it will not boot.

If you used usb creator it should get you a bootable usb stick as that is
its purpose. If you have other sticks then you could try a different one,
just in case it has a problem. Just one more factor to rule out.

More than once, I have used the USB creator, created from a downloaded ISO, and
got a nice USB stick which booted and was persistent. (In other words, when I
changed settings, they were still changed the next time I booted from the USB
stick.)

One of those times, the stick was brand new, and I had never done anything to it
to make it bootable.

I am running Mint 9.04. I think the USB creator is the one from Ubuntu, so the
fact I'm running Mint is irrelevant.

I have used unetbootin in the past, but the stick was not persistent.

I like to never figured this out! Assuming you succeeded in making the stick
bootable, this works with my asus eeepc.As soon as I hit the power button I
start tapping F2 to bring up the BIOS. ( I had already been to BIOS and told it
to boot from the USB first but it still ignores it.) Once the BIOS page comes up
I just hit F10 to save it even though at this time I have made no changes.Then
hit the Enter key and start tapping the Escape key until a page loads that lets
me select the USB to boot.
So, in short, Power, then start tapping F2. When the BIOS page loads, just save
and exit and start tapping the Escape key. That takes me to a page where I can
boot from either the USB or the hard drive.

On my eepc I press ESC to get the boot manager. If you use the boot manager
then you don't need to change the BIOS at all.