Thank you ilko_t, I'll do my best to keep this short... After reading the information in that post, I reformatted with PeToUSB (default settings, only FAT16X selected), copied the 'NTDETECT.COM' 'NTLDR' files and created boot.ini file mimicking the one in the link you gave me, restarted and, just 'j'... Ran the HP utility and formatted to NTFS with no other options, just 'j'. Again ran the HP utility but formatted 'FAT' and no other options selected and again I had the same result upon reboot... Grabbed another usb stick (didn't have drivers, windows auto installed generic versions and BIOS detected it as such), Ran the same utilities with the same options as on the Cruzer Micro i started with, all of my attempts so far have ended in the same result. This being a total of 6 tests I thought it might be possible that I had never done something like this before on this computer. I happened to still have a copy of Universal USB Installer (version 1.8.6.0) and a RIP Linux .iso laying around on my hard drive. So I ran the installer, let it take all defaults, rebooted and HUZZAH boot menu for rip linux. I'm beginning to wonder if I should attempt writing zero's to my drive as outlined in this post: Installing Windows XP on a laptop which had Linux . Or just attempt the LiveXP solution, but I'm not sure I completely understand the procedures for that method and will have to read through it a couple more times. Undoubtedly wish this method would work for me, it seems very convenient and painless when it works. EDIT: Downloaded the DSFOK package went the extra mile and wrote 0's to the first 102400 bytes of the stick, reformatted (just with HP format tool), rebooted and, you guessed it, no change.