Is there a Bootable iso on the flash drive?
What exactly is on that USB flash memory thumb drive and how did you create it?
"How to maximise your MacRumors troubleshooting experience" created by mad jew in 2006
Yes, I went through Bootcamp assistance - dragged my "Windows7Ultimate.iso" file to the field and installed it, followed by a "successful installation"
The format of the UBS drive is FAT 32 I take it or something other then NTFS?
doesnt bootcamp do it all for you? when i did it i made the usb stick, clicked next or whatever and it restarted and booted into the windows install menu. didnt have to select a boot drive or anything
Ive tried two different sticks, one of them is brand new. Neither works. My 2TB HDD works though - but its formatted in MAC Journal and wont work for PC, cant really bother to format that one and lose all data as Ive got a good 300 GB worth of material on itIt could just be a poor quality or dying stick...Can you try another one?
You shouldn't need to hold the option key down during boot to boot off the USB key.
Bootcamp Assistant should have already set that drive as the next boot device.
When you hold the option key down, it's bypassing anything that Bootcamp Assistant did for you.
You may need to re-do the Bootcamp Assistant from the start, but first I would try just booting the system without doing any option key.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/boot_camp_install-setup.pdf