Boot Multiple ISO from USB (MultiBoot USB)
How to create a Multiboot USB Flash Drive that you can use to Boot Multiple ISO Files from USB. Please note that you might need a 8GB-16GB USB flash device to be able to support every bootable ISO listed in the Grub menu. I will update and add more Bootable ISO files to the list as I find the time to test them. You can also contact me to submit your working Bootable ISO entries for inclusion.
MultiBoot USB Menu (Simply select an ISO to boot from USB)
MultiBootISOs Works by utilizing a Syslinux Bootloader chainloaded to GRUB4DOS. At Start up, the following Boot menu is presented.
UPDATE: Now utilizes a Main Menu with Sub-Menus to ease Navigation!
Basic Essentials to create a Multi ISO Boot USB Flash Drive
- Fat32 Formatted Flash Drive (NOT Superfloppy)
- PC that can boot from USB-HDD or in some cases USB-ZIP
- Windows XP/Vista/7 host to create the Bootable USB
- MultiBootISOs.exe
- Your select ISO Files
How to Boot Multiple ISO Files from USB
Download MultiBootISOs- Run *MultiBootISOs-v1.6.exe following the onscreen instructions
- Download some ISO Files (listed below) and place them on your USB Drive "per the instructions listed for each Distribution"
- Restart your PC setting it to boot from the USB device
- Select the ISO you want to Boot from the Menu and enjoy!
That's all there is to it. You should now be booting your favorite ISO files from your Multi-Boot USB device!
* For (NTFS or Fat32 Formatted) external Hard Drives and large USB Flash Drives, you can try our Experimental-MultiBootISOs-v1.6.exe
This MultiBoot ISO process should enable you to Boot the following. For most ISOs/Images, you simply place the ISO/Image at the root of your USB. (Example: E:/) unless additional instructions are mentioned.
Distribution Sites, Download Links, and Instructions are listed. Click to expand
NEW Entries in this version or changes made on July 31, 2010
(Extract "HBCD" folder from Hiren's ISO to the root of your USB)
Recently Updated Entries
Unchanged Entries
Known Issues:
It is REQUIRED that your flash drive contain a formatted partition! Some flash drives ship formatted "superfloppy" (without a partition table). Those drives will need to be reformatted to use a partition, so they can be detected by BIOS as a Hard Drive. If you are not presented with a Boot Menu as pictured above, or the menu is found at (fd0) instead of (hd0,0) the problem is likely that you are trying to boot the flash drive as a superfloppy. You should reformat your flash drive using one of the methods listed HERE, then reinstall MultiBootISOs, and attempt to boot using the USB-HDD or USB-ZIP BIOS option or see if the drive shows up as a selectable hard disk in your Boot Menu.
Currently, you must manually add (or extract in some cases) the ISO Files to your Flash Drive. The tool will automatically do this for you in the near future.
Boot conflicts may arise when more than one ISOs contents are extracted to root. If you experience a conflict, let me know!
If you are not presented with a Boot Menu, it is also possible (although unlikely) that your USB may not have an MBR. You can try this Install MBR to Flash Drive tutorial to fix the problem.
Some Flakey BIOSs may try to initiate your USB as a Floppy (fd0) regardless of how the USB is formatted, and the USB Boot method you use. In this case, you should seek a BIOS firmware update from the manufacturer of your motherboard.
Additional Notes:
You can boot Ubuntu and Ubuntu based remixes with persistence by simply using our Casper-RW Creator script to create a Casper-RW file on your USB device. Only one Distro can use casper persistence.
If you don't have a floppy drive and get fd0 errors while booting, simply add floppy.allowed_drive_mask=0 to the kernel line for that menu entry. Although the best fix is to disable floppy in BIOS.
To load Ophcrack tables when booted in this fashion, the tables folder needs to exist at the root of the USB device. Example E:\tables\vista_free. Download Tables from the Official site and unzip to your USB.
Boot Errors: While trying to run an ISO from USB, If you get a Boot error saying:
Error 60: File for drive emulation must be in one contiguous disk area
You'll need to defragment your ISO using one of the following tools:
contig - Command line tool to defragment ISO files.
wincontig – GUI tool to defragment ISO files.
For information on how to try other ISO's, see the "CDROM emulation (virtualization) section" in the official GRUB4DOS Readme file. Additionally, Here is another good third party guide that explains how things work.
If you successfully boot from a Linux Based ISO that isn't listed, let me know and I will add it to the list.
