Hey, Sorry for the big delays between responses. I got it working! It turns out that my guess was correct. It was a problem with the USB. I never had problems loading my usb on computers or laptops so I didn't know there was some extra steps to ensure everything ran fine.
I went to windows command prompt(ran as administrator, not sure if that mattered or not) and typed.
DISKPART
list disk (showed my usb as disk 1)
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active (this step and the line above I was not used to doing)
format fs=fat32 (I'm not sure if quick formatting works, I'm sure it does but I went ahead and did it the slow way)
assign (this is another step I'm not used to doing as my computer has always recognized the device without doing it)
exit (to leave diskpart)
exit(to leave command prompt)
I reflashed back to factory firmware and then redownloaded the install folder zip, extracted it, and moved install folder to USB. redownloaded the bin file from the link mentioned from previous post. Safely removed USB, plugged it into router, plugged ethernet cable into router (hooked up to pc), turned router on, then just went to 192.168.0.1 and did firmware upgrade with the .bin. Everything went smoothly, the piratebox - share freely ssid popped up and then just followed post install instructions. Works like a charm.
Thank you guys for the help and for your patience with me. I absolutely love piratebox already and look forward to getting more familiar it.
I went to windows command prompt(ran as administrator, not sure if that mattered or not) and typed.
DISKPART
list disk (showed my usb as disk 1)
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active (this step and the line above I was not used to doing)
format fs=fat32 (I'm not sure if quick formatting works, I'm sure it does but I went ahead and did it the slow way)
assign (this is another step I'm not used to doing as my computer has always recognized the device without doing it)
exit (to leave diskpart)
exit(to leave command prompt)
I reflashed back to factory firmware and then redownloaded the install folder zip, extracted it, and moved install folder to USB. redownloaded the bin file from the link mentioned from previous post. Safely removed USB, plugged it into router, plugged ethernet cable into router (hooked up to pc), turned router on, then just went to 192.168.0.1 and did firmware upgrade with the .bin. Everything went smoothly, the piratebox - share freely ssid popped up and then just followed post install instructions. Works like a charm.
Thank you guys for the help and for your patience with me. I absolutely love piratebox already and look forward to getting more familiar it.