Installing from USB Stick

[#1]

Hi all
Hope someone can give me an insight into what i can try next. I have been trying to install various versions of Linux (Ubuntu NR, Fedora etc.). However nothing works, Ubuntu NR is what i used to use and am trying to go back to but the installation fails about 40 secs in. I cant remember the exact message but the netbook drops to a shell every  time.
The only 2 distros i can actually install are Moblin & the Acer recovery thing.
Any ideas?
P.S - I am using Unetbootin to download and make the bootable USB Stick. I have done this successfully many times before but something is wrong this time 

[#2]

OK sounds like it is failing to load past grub, have you tried a different usb stick? That is usually the reason.
OR try reformatting the drive to fat32 and re-running unetbootin, or it maybe you ahve a bad d/l have you tried it in a VM?

[#3]

Quote from: Hairy

OK sounds like it is failing to load past grub, have you tried a different usb stick? That is usually the reason. OR try reformatting the drive to fat32 and re-running unetbootin, or it maybe you ahve a bad d/l have you tried it in a VM?

Tried 2 different USB sticks (have 1 more to try), have tried FAT,FAT32 & NTFS. All with same results.
Whats a VM?

[#4]

Virtual machine, something like <a href="http://dlc.sun.com/virtualbox/vboxdownload.html#linux">this</a> you can load the iso into a test machine to make sure it boot fine.
You could also try booting your main pc with the usb stick to see if it is something to do with the laptop.

[#5]

Managed to get xp on after many attempts, have made 4 separate partitions so will give WUBI a try for Ubuntu NR