Hi, don't want to sound dumb here, but I absolutely cannot get ANY distro to work from a usb stick or usb hard drive except Puppy Linux. I ran install to usb stick from Puppy live cd, and it works like a charm. I've struggled with grub while attempting the install with Mepis, Ubuntu, Mint, PCLinuxOS, etc., ad nauseum. My preference to use is Mepis, as it has a smooth gui, recognizes my wireless without configuration, auto-loads usb, etc. I haven't found anywhere a clear, concise, step by step how-to about installing Linux to usb stick or hard drive and actually getting it to boot. While I'm no programmer, I work as a pc analyst, and know my way around operating systems and configurations. This is making me crazy! My goals are to have a complete OS on a usb stick for portability (Mepis), and a home system for creative and everyday applications (Ubuntu Studio) installed or dual booted on my pc or laptop. I know this can't be that hard, I'm either dense or looking in the wrong places. Help? Someone? Please?!?