Ventoy is another Multiboot Bootable USB Creation Software Tool that can be used to boot and run multiple ISO files from USB. Its functionality is relatively straight forward. You simply use the utility to format and prepare your thumb drive, then drag and drop your chosen ISO files onto your flash drive. The ISO files are directly copied over and added to the boot menu. This should result in a ready to boot USB device
Much like the YUMI Bootable USB Creator Software, this is an Open Source tool, so everyone is welcome to dig in to see how it works. It supports both legacy BIOS and UEFI boot options, and also works with UEFI Secure Boot.
How it works: This Multiboot USB Tool works by creating a hidden bootable partition which houses the boot menu and GRUB boot loader. While another exFAT partition is created and used for storing the bootable ISO files. This method allows for the storage of file sizes larger than 4GB.
The exFAT partition VT creates on your flash drive can also still be used for traditional storage purposes. This is unlike tools such as Win32 Disk Imager or Etcher that simply use DD to Write an ISO, or Burn ISO to USB. Those tools effectively overwrite the disk content with one single image (creating a USB clone of the source ISO file). Although in some cases (if the disk extents of the source are set properly) you can also create a secondary partition on the device to use for storage.
VT Project Project Page
Ventoy Windows Bootable Flash Drive Creation
Warning: You cannot initially run this tool from your USB device (store it somewhere on your PC). It will need to format the drive. Additionally, be aware that during install, any content currently on your selected device will be wiped clean!
1. Download and unzip using 7-zip or similar software.
2. Then, navigate to the Ventoy folder and Click Ventoy2Disk.exe
3. (1.) Next, select your USB device from the dropdown. (2.) Click Install.
4. Next, simply Drag and Drop ISO files onto your USB drive.
Note: You can drag and drop multiple ISO files at once.
5. Reboot your PC and enter your Boot Device Menu (typically F9, F12, or ESC), and select your flash drive as the boot device.
6. From the Boot Menu, choose an ISO to launch, and enjoy!
Creating a Bootable USB from Linux
Navigate to the latest releases section on github. Note which Ventoy-x.x.xx-tar.gz version is the most recent.
1. From your Linux desktop, open a terminal Ctrl+Alt+T
2. Next, to download, as a single line, replacing 1.0.29 with the latest version, type
wget https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases/download/v1.0.29/ventoy-1.0.29-linux.tar.gz
3. To extract the .tar.gz file, type
tar -zxvf ventoy*.tar.gz
4. Now change to the directory, replacing 1.0.29 with version, type
cd ventoy-1.0.29
5. To locate which /dev/sdX is your USB device, type
sudo fdisk -l
6. To Install Ventoy on your USB, replacing X with your actual flash device letter, type
./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdX
7. Then simply copy an ISO file to your USB flash drive.
8. Finally reboot, set your BIOS or UEFI to boot from the device. Boot to see if it works.
9. Upon startup, you should be presented with a Boot Menu containing the name of the ISO files you have added. Simply select an ISO from the menu to boot into.
