How do I boot from a usb memory stick , assuming that this is possible.

it isnt. faster, better, MORE!!

It is possible, you just need the right hardware, have a look HERE. I don't suffer from insanity, I embrace it.

It certainly is possible but it does depend on several things. First you must have a BIOS which supports booting from USB. Sometimes there may be an option to boot from LS120 and if you're talking about a laptop there is likely to be an option to boot from USB floppy also. You then need a USB stick which can be configured to emulate one of your BIOS options. I recently did quite a bit of research on this very subject because I found it ludicrous that I had to be carrying around an external floppy drive which was almost half the size of my ultraportable laptop but it only supported booting from USB floppy. What I eventually discovered was a device called a floppy terminator. See it at www.weast.co.uk click "Buy Now" and see third item down ODH (Floppy Terminator) I have hardly used a floppy disk since and recently sold my external USB floppy drive !

Thanks for the help.