disk read error when attempting to intall windows 7 from bootable USB

Hi, I've had my current PC for a few years now and in that time I've done a fresh installation of Win7 several times always via USB. Today I inserted my trusty flash drive, set it as priority device in BIOS and after pressing "any key to boot from USB" I get hit with "A disk read error occurred". This has never happened before and I'm using the same 8GB flash drive I've always used.

I've spent the entire day reading threads on here and other forums and am absolutely stuck. Here's what I have done thus far:

- Tried the flash drive in every available USB port

- Created a new ISO from my original win7 disc and put it on USB using different methods (Rufus, WinToUSB, wintobootic and even just using the classic CMD)

- Tested the flash drive on 2 other computers, both of which were able to boot and load the Windows installer without issue

- Tried several other flash drives, all gave the same error but worked fine on the other computers

- Tested a flash drive with Ubuntu which worked fine so I know I'm not unable to boot from USB full stop

- Looked around BIOS to change things people have suggested but none of the options like disabling secure boot appear for me. This really shouldn't be an issue anyway as it's always worked before.

Now, there have been 2 very odd things happen. Firstly, after trying for hours and hours I unplugged the hard drive I had in there (sata) and replaced it with a brand new one (ssd). When I pressed a key to boot I didn't get an error and windows actually started loading but then I got a BSOD. On the next start up it's the same 'disk read error' message and I never got beyond that again.

Secondly, when I was searching for spare flash drives to try I found a really old one loaded with Vista. The first time I tried that it booted fine and I got to the installation window. However the next time I tried this I got the 'disk read error'. Not that I want to install Vista anyway but I'm really not sure what to make of that.... very strange, no? That made me re-check the Ubuntu USB but that still worked the several times I tried it.

I found a youtube video of someone with the exact same problem and they resolved it by unplugging the mouse and other devices apart from the keyboard but that didn't work for me. If it wasn't for the fact that I am able to boot the Ubuntu USB I probably would have written this off as a hardware problem.

My DVD-R drive died awhile ago but I could replace that and install via the disc but I'm concerned I'd get the same error booting that way too. Am I likely too?

Sorry for the long post.

Is there anything else I can try? I have a asrock n68-s3 ucc mobo if that helps at all.