Many Thanks to those who responded
 

I believe there is a good chance I'm overthinking this---a bad habit of mine--- your advice is as I expected, it's a pretty straightforward process that has been fairly automated? I have a copy of Ubuntu 15.04 on this drive, but it(the machine(software)) says the iso is unmountable and is bad.

Ubuntu 15.04 is obsolete and unsupported: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ry/000203.html

You can download the current release (16.04.1 at the time of this writing) here: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

You'll notice that page has instructions how to create a live USB whether you are currently using Linux, Windows, or OSX. It is also worth reading the instructions how to verify your download. You can even buy a USB stick with Ubuntu already on it, if you like!

I agree with jefro's advice in your other thread, that you should purchase a second, inexpensive flash drive for Linux (2gb is all you need), so that you don't risk the data on your current device.