windows 8 not seeing usb for backtrack boot

spawndemonic

I have an acer aspire v3 and i am trying to boot backtrack 5 r3 or any linux for that matter from my usb. i have disabled fast boot, enabled f12 for boot options but the usb is not recognized. I have vmware but wireless doesn't work without a usb wifi card if there is a way to get the wireless card to work on the laptop while in vmware that would be better. all help appreciated