How to Create Multiboot USB Drives with Ventoy
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If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a handful of bootable USBs lying around for everything from installing Windows to trying out Linux distros.
I’m about to blow your mind with the hands-down best tool for the job: Ventoy.
But let me tell you, once you try Ventoy, those other USB drives will start gathering dust.
This free tool is a game-changer!
One USB to Rule Them All
Ventoy is an open-source tool that lets you create a single bootable USB drive that can hold as many ISO files as it can fit.
No more messing around with USB drive after USB drive!
Just plop your ISOs into the Ventoy drive, reboot your computer, pick an ISO from the list, and boom – you’re up and running.
It’s ridiculously simple to set up too. You won’t believe how easy it is:
- Download Ventoy (did I mention it’s 100% free?)
- Run the Ventoy2Disk.exe
- Pick your USB drive (back up any important data first!)
- Click “Install” and wait a minute or two
- Copy some ISOs to the USB drive
- Reboot and bask in the awesomeness
One Drive, Infinite Possibilities
I’ve been using a Samsung BAR Plus 256GB USB drive as my Ventoy drive. This thing is a beast! I’ve loaded it up with:
- Linux ISOs: Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, you name it. If there’s a distro I want to try, it goes on the drive. Just last week, I used it to test-drive the cosmic desktop – it worked flawlessly!
- Windows ISOs: No more fiddling around with Rufus or Etcher. I keep all my Windows ISOs here and use them to install Windows whenever I need.
- Recovery Tools: I’ve got ISOs for tools like GParted, Clonezilla, and a variety of antivirus rescue disks. If a machine needs fixing, I’m ready.
- Portable Apps: I created a separate partition for my library of portable apps. My favorite tools are always with me, no installation required!
- VHD/VHDX Files: I boot VHD and VHDX files directly from the drive. It’s like having a full Windows install on my USB stick!
With Ventoy, all these images are at my fingertips, ready to boot instantly. It’s incredibly powerful.
Plays Nice with Everything
One of the best parts about Ventoy is how compatible it is.
It works with just about every OS out there – Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, you name it.
In fact, Ventoy has been tested with over 1100 ISO files and supports 90%+ of the distros on DistroWatch!
It’s not picky about USB drives either.
You can install Ventoy on USB drives, local disks, SSDs, NVMe drives, even SD cards!
Got an old USB 2.0 drive? No problem.
Rocking a speedy new USB 3.1 like my Samsung BAR Plus? Ventoy is happy to oblige.
It’ll even work on those fancy new USB-C drives!
Customization for Days
For you tinkerers out there, Ventoy has some slick extras up its sleeves:
- Custom boot menus: Add some pizzazz with custom wallpapers, fonts, and layouts
- Persistence support: Create a data partition and save changes back to the USB!
- Auto-installation: Automatically load an ISO and kick off an unattended install after a set time
- Secure Boot support: Ventoy has supported Secure Boot by default since version 1.0.76!
Now that you’re sold on Ventoy (and how could you not be?), here are some insider tips to supercharge your experience:
Boot Anything, Anywhere
With Ventoy, you’re not limited to just ISOs.
You can boot WIM, IMG, VHD, VHDX, and EFI files too! And if your ISO isn’t on the USB drive, no sweat – you can use Ventoy to browse for ISOs on your local drives and network shares!
Create the Ultimate Rescue Drive
Ventoy is perfect for building the ultimate rescue toolkit.
Load it up with ISOs for tools like GParted, MemTest86, Clonezilla, and your favorite antivirus rescue disks, and you’ll be ready for any PC emergency!
Spice Up Your Boot Menu
Ventoy’s boot menu is dead simple by default, but you can customize it with your own backgrounds, fonts, and layouts.
You can even create custom boot entries with your own parameters and kernel options using the ventoy_grub.cfg file!
Tackle Tricky Hardware
Got a machine with quirky hardware?
Ventoy lets you inject drivers on the fly from a separate folder on your USB drive.
Just press F2 at the boot menu, pick your drivers, and you’re off to the races!
A Few Gotchas
While Ventoy is pretty darn close to perfect, there are a couple of minor gotchas to keep in mind:
- If you’ve got Secure Boot enabled, you might hit a “Verification Failed” error the first time you try to boot. Don’t panic – just follow the prompts to enroll Ventoy’s key and you’ll be good to go.
- When you install Ventoy, it needs to create a couple of partitions on your USB drive. On rare occasions, your drive might not show up in Windows Explorer after you’re done. If that happens, just pop open Disk Management and assign it a drive letter.
- A few oddball distros (like Breath, a ChromeOS fork) can be picky about the USB drive’s partitioning. For those rare cases, you might need to use a dedicated drive.
What are you waiting for?
Seriously, once you start using Ventoy, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.
With over 3.6 million downloads and counting, Ventoy is hands-down the most useful USB tool I’ve come across in years.
So what are you waiting for? Grab yourself a big fast USB drive (like the excellent Samsung BAR Plus 256GB) and start consolidating those ISOs like a pro!
Got a favorite use case for Ventoy?
Let me know in the comments – I’d love to hear how you’re using this awesome tool!