Hello ngrace, do you mean the computer is not booting elementary from the USB? Have you created the USB with Rufus(.exe, Windows) or Unetbootin (Linux)? The most important point is: Every USB Stick must be formatted with FAT32.
Hey ngrace, you need another USB Stick to install elementary on, I think. Using the same USB stick you're installing from is not possible due to reformatting/repartitioning while installing and this way the data you need to copy would be lost.