I would give the usb stick another try with dd.
You are recommended to format the stick to the appropriate fat format to start with but I forget about half the time and it is no problem. dd copies the entire input file to the entire defined drive (output file) including the format.
So you can't have anything else on the drive when putting the image on it. You can create more partitions after that if you want persistence or data partitions or both for that matter.
I have Wheezy live on a 32gig stick with persistence and a data partition for data recovery chores when they turn up.
Code:
dd if=<file> of=<device> bs=4M; sync
an example, admittedly with a long path to the input file;
Code:
dd if=/home/thom/Dropbox/Cynix64-Alpha2/cynix-live.iso of=/dev/sdi bs=4M; sync
You need a complete path. This can be done by simply going to the image, right click on it and select "copy" go to your terminal and "paste" to the correct place in the command. This is not the approved geek way to do a command but I suck at typing. Very good at typos though.
You need the device designation of the stick for the "of=" (output file).
The "bs" is blocksize and the "sync" gets rid of any extra files created.
Will generally work fine without those last 2 but that is what Debian recommends to use.
If this doesn't work I would go to a RW DVD.
I have looked at MultiSystem. Got it, looked at it, tried one image not on the list, deleted it. Wasn't impressed.
Could be that it works for some but it didn't for me. dd works and is included in all Linux distros and works the same in all of them.