4 USB Boot Drives EVERYONE Should Make! (Before It's Too Late)

[@ThioJoe]

Thanks to Private Internet Access for sponsoring! As I said I've literally been a paying customer since 2014, it's great. • Check out this link to get up to 77% off! ⇨ privateinternetaccess.com/thiojoe

[@Sathish_90]

seriously bro 4 usb, hmmmm i heard i can do it in a single drive. (ping me if you know the tool or you want the tool)i am sure no 4 usb drive needed. I Am a System / Network Administrator i tech my team not to have so many drive evey one has 1 and it contain all what u said. again ping me if you know the software or you want the software. i will give you clue it name start in V and end in Y.

[@NehorayPerets]

I used Rufus a lot untill I know Ventoy and I think that Ventoy is better

[@MDRAyo]

I recently discoverq a tool in windows called diskpart. I don't know if you know it but it is the equivalebt of cmd but to manage the partitions and the drive and it is really more powerfull than the tool that everyone use so you should use it.

[@MDRAyo]

There is also an operating system called tail. It was made to maximise your anonymity and it is really powerfull, you can even manage your disks on it so you should take a look at it.

[@Yadobler]

Ah yes, the 🤔 TJ watermark

[@Prithvidiamond]

ThioJoe, I must say that you have seriously redeemed yourself from being an active KZbin troll to being a teacher who teaches everyone who to be their own IT services guy. I really appreciate the change you have taken. Not a lot of people change for the better but you have, keep it up!

[@aredjay4342]

what did he do as a troll, im confuzed?

[@sam6000]

@@aredjay4342 he used to make videos where he would teach you how to "Double your CPU cores for free" or "How to turn your ps3 into a ps4". They were obviously not actual life hacks, but he sounded really smart talking about it, and although any adult who already knows about tech may deserve it for thinking they somehow cheated the system, a lot of the people who watched his videos were children at the time, and although the steps he described in the videos weren't going to make you delete system32 or anything like that, it just gave us naive kids a false hope, and we felt betrayed. If you wanna see his old videos, he privated all of them, but you can still watch them through a playlist on his youtube channel.

[@darwisyaiman1865]

Try the april fool joke first🤣

[@zethcader6478]

Still, kinda miss his old content

[@Prithvidiamond]

@BULL FADE I had unsubscribed too until 1 year back when I saw he was back to making genuine videos again. So I subscribed just to see if he ever goes back to being a troll. I am happy to see that even after 1 year the dude has stuck to making genuine content that benefits people, so I think I shall leave my subscription on (until he goes back to trolling again of course!).

[@octopusonfire100]

A couple points about the Ubuntu live USB: - Sometimes you can't mount a Windows drive in write mode because it is in some sort of hibernation state. You can bypass this by using the switch remove_hiberfile of the mount command. - You can set up a persistent USB, which will save your Ubuntu configuration even if you shut down the machine. It's a little bit more complicated but easy to follow from any of the many tutorials you can find online.

[@thadtheman3751]

Do you have a link to setting up a persistent USB?

[@nerilancioni187]

If you have a big enough USB drive, you can use Ventoy! It's a tool that makes your USB bootable from BIOS/UEFI and MBR/GPT partition tables (literally any PC) and you just drag the ISO files into it. When booting it displays a list of your ISOs and you can select wich one to run. Recommendation: Format the biggest partition with as exFAT to have files bigger than 2GB (I.E: Windows 10 ISO file)

[@rexthewild]

That’s what i was thinking the whole duration of the video

[@tr4x1ymus]

yup get a 128gb flash drive that has both typeA and typeC slap ventoy on it and go ham with the tools and ISOs. My personal list would include: w11, w10, hirensbootcd, latest ubuntu LTS, and whatever else you want. You can also make a folder on the drive with scripts and installers for the most basic programs and drivers.

[@Ptolemy2205]

He made another video about ventoy.. guess he probably saw the comments about it, or found it somehow after doing this one

[@lforlight]

An Ubuntu drive is handy. One time I had a positioning program that has a boot manager feature built in. I only launched the program and it set the boot manager up, except it didn't actually function. When next I turned my laptop on, it showed me the program's logo and a blank boot menu. Basically locked out of my own computer, I contacted the company whose logo plagued my laptop. While dealing with the support, I remembered I have an Ubuntu CD, from the time back when Ubuntu would send you CDs for free. It let me bypass the faulty boot menu and access my files. I asked the support lady if this could help. She told me to delete a file or two, and that neutralized the rogue program. Ubuntu live CD saved my laptop. Bootable USB drives are basically that.

[@peterp.wanabe9299]

'neutralized'

[@lforlight]

@@peterp.wanabe9299 You are absolutely correct. Phone keyboard probably messed the word up. Thanks.

[@johnszatkowski6898]

An absolute MUST! I use a free disk imaging software that makes in image of my main drive every week and stores it to a secondary drive. My computer just recently became "unstable" so I booted off a USB prepped thumb drive and restored my system from 7days prior and works like a champ! I also backup my critical data to a NAS every hour so I really lost nothing and had to do a little bit of tinkering with NO major loss! An hour of lost data is nothing compared to MONTHS (or more) and your system setup. I learned that the "hard way" and had almost TOTAL data loss! Since then I have safeguards in place to prevent that from happening and only took less than an hour of my time to setup to be well covered. You really need a NAS (Networked Attached Storage drive) to safeguard yourself doing backups frequently - in my case every hour. Most people don't plan for "total failure" until it happens. I was there too once but not anymore. Windows 10 offers a "back-up" to a NAS to do every hour and backup your stuff but a total image of the disk will restore you in a pinch and then you can copy the backups from your NAS back to your system.

[@brodriguez11000]

Macrium does both backup, and recovery.

[@NoEgg4u]

@11:26 "This is probably going to take a long time", meaning, creating the bootable USB drive. This is why: Since you will be using the USB flash drive for this single purpose, most people will probably get an inexpensive flash drive, which makes sense. But those inexpensive flash drives are inexpensive for a reason: "They are slow", especially when writing to them (when reading from them, they are usually not bad). So creating your bootable flash drive will run as slow as 5 MB per second, even if it is a USB 3.0 flash drive (but it will read at more the 50 MB per second, or faster). So, yes, save your money and get one of these inexpensive slow USB flash drives, because you will be writing a lot of data to it only once. When you need to boot from it, you should see acceptable speed. And make sure that you do a test boot. Do not assume that just because it appears that you successfully created the bootable USB drive that it will actually boot. Test it. Make sure it actually works. Also, it is easy to create the bootable USB flash drive. But your system might not allow you to boot from that USB flash drive, even though the flash drive is perfect in every way. Why? A lot of computers have a setting in the BIOS that locks out booting from external drives. So figure this out now, and do not wait until you actually need to boot from your flash drive. You need to know: -- Which keys to press, to get into your computer's BIOS (and once there, where to find the setting that will allow you to boot from your flash drive). -- Which keys to press, to get your computer to actually boot from the USB flash drive. @13:14 "LTS" does not stand for Long Term Service. It stands for Long Term Stable. Other versions might be available, which have frequent updates, and those updates have not been field tested for a lengthy period of time, which is why they are not deemed to be "Stable". They might be stable. But without the community using it for some time, it would be wrong to conclude that it is stable. Cheers!

[@Jayson90210]

LTS = Long Term Support I believe.

[@danischannel]

Thanks

[@ThiagoHenriqueDS]

There's a tool called ventoy which allows you to have multiples ISOs images on a single USB drive and on boot you can select the one you want to boot from.

[@jorgeluna7914]

I came here to say the same thing. Ventoy is amazing. I used to use multiboot usb, but ventoy is better as you don't had to run the app to remove or add new images. You just drop the image in the partition for the isos.

[@UltralifeTech]

I’m also here to mention Ventoy. I have ~20 isos ready to go.

[@samulimahkonen8604]

Im also rockin Ventoy on my one old usb-ide 100gb hard drive. Use Ventoy guys.

[@cyberp0et]

@@samulimahkonen8604 That sounds just great :)

[@scartyz762]

Yeah literally who pays for lots of usb drives when you can just buy one

[@cindrmon]

i was supposed to mention that too! ventoy is the true multitool!

[@raymondgradzewicz]

Yeah I'm using Ventoy too, so nice to not have to redo all my isos just because arch updates every month, like I did with YUMI.

[@ggme4682]

Wow. oh Wow. This is probably one of the most clear-cut, perfect educational videos I've ever seen. To the point. Perfect voice and clarity. NO SILLY MUSIC!!!. You are a master of this. I need 3 of these drives which I will very soon create. Thank you Sir! And I just subscribed.

[@ElPutihernandez]

Hello teacher, I just wanted to tell you that every day I learn more about you and for me you are a teacher

[@lsudo]

Same here bro :D

[@SkyrimExplorer]

@@elixier33 If someone believed these joke videos were true then... Well not all are born equal.

[@TylerScottMillaway]

Grand Master Theo teaches us all.

[@KingNikolai]

@MacCraker Well I'm sure he did the Windows tutorial because that is what the majority of people use, but I agree a Linux tutorial would've been good for him to include as well.

[@djbapetistas5519]

@@elixier33 lol u have 19 comments on this chanel, all crying how he's an idiot for ruining "people's" hardware (probbably talking bout urself), funny and so sad at the same time

[@kemy5368]

if you use ventoy, you can have one USB drive with all the tools on it.

[@tomhorsley6566]

You can even do it manually with a bit of extra work.

[@dionnix]

@@tomhorsley6566 yes, but ventoy makes it simple :)

[@SumJrk]

Thank you. That suggestion was very helpful as I had never heard of ventoy before , and I was just starting to set up 12 different thumb drives, but now I have it all on 1. 👍

[@DMNL2]

Ventoys for ever 🙂 I'm nothing without my usb 129GB key with Ventoys and like 80 isoz to choose from 🙂

[@kenny-ze8eg]

One thing tho. You'll want your hirens boot cd on its own usb, then the rest on a ventoy drive. When you have it on ventoy, the anti-virus will only scan at the application level instead of system level. It is good to have it on ventoy also tho.

[@mario-bjornpeikert1572]

@ThioJoe: Did you ever consider checking out tools like Ventoy? These tools are easy to use multibooters which can run multiple images off one USB-Drive. I found out most systems built after 2009 or so run quite well with it. Be aware: Some systems don't support USB booting if the drive partition exceeds 128 GB. If you can cope with this harsh limit, the Ventoy project would be my first choice for trying out. Especially the feature to drag and drop iso images to the USB drive and having them listed automatically works out really nice!

[@Mauro_P]

Hi Mario. Is better use Ventoy than Rufus?

[@mario-bjornpeikert1572]

@@Mauro_P It depends on what you want: If you only want to boot one operating system from usb Ventoy is to much hassle to set up and Rufus is your tool of choice. If you want to be able to choose between more than one operating system to boot from the same USB-device, Ventoy is much better suited for you!

[@casedistorted]

@@mario-bjornpeikert1572 Ventoy is too much of a hassle? I thought it was easier to set up than Rufus? All I did was run the .exe file and install it to a USB drive, then drag and drop the .iso files I need. Also this YT'r just created a video on how to use Ventoy for all these files he's talking about, yay!

[@gabdriver2]

Despite the hassle of having to copy each ISO to the correct folder in the USB drive, (Win8, Win10, Utilities, Linux, etc.), I currently prefer Easy2Boot instead of Ventoy, especially for booting utility ISOs (that must be copied to the "Utilities" folder) like Hiren's Boot. Now I use it to have not only Hiren's but also a Windows installation ISO and some Linux "live" ISOs to test.

[@gblargg]

With Ventoy you can even boot off ISO files on your hard drive without having to copy them over to the USB stick (obviously not useful in a recovery context, but otherwise makes it easy to try various flavors of Linux live CDs, etc.)

[@kensmith5694]

You missed out the Puppy Linux option. This one is different from other Linuxes because it will save all your work into a compressed file on the hard drive or on the USB. In the hard drive case, as far as Windows is concerned, it is just some binary file on your computer. This means you can have a bootable and usable system that doesn't forget everything each time you reboot. It is also very compact and extremely fast for most of what you need to do. Its design was focused on ease of use for being your "daily driver" OS but it does have gparted and the ability to access your NTFS partition if you tell it to do so.

[@idkrossplay]

I actually used to carry a USB with puppy Linux everywhere just for this kind of stuff lol

[@kensmith5694]

@@idkrossplay These days I am using Mint as my daily driver. I was considering at one point making my own puppy and did quite a lot of work on it. Sadly too much software started to be 64 bit only for me to finish it. My partly done version would make an only netbook with a 600MHz clock work as a very usable machine.

[@Kumakaree]

Seriously I love the direction this channel has taken You have my utmost respect Thio

[@BM-iz5ii]

NVMe's are not considered as 'drives' in certain UEFI's, but rather as some kind of miscellaneous hardware. They even use different menus to access them, if for example you want to change their boot order. That is probably the reason why there is no option in the Recovery Driver that works for them.

[@tonyhawk123]

I tried two SSDs in enclosures (with the ISOs inside Ventoy). The NVMe based drive wouldn't work at all. Some have got it working with their particular hardware so YMMV.

[@PoeLemic]

Everyone ... it's good to listen to ThioJoe and be prepared. ThioJoe ... Thanks for covering this. Yes, each update of Windows is bound to screw something up. Mine's screwed up right now. So, I'm planning to reinstall full when 21H1 comes out.

[@darwisyaiman1865]

That version some kind of risky to my pc and luckly my pc update without any problem

[@BWGPEI]

I go back to days of actually having Hiren's on a boot CD. Yet you put this all together so well that I get enthusiastic all over again. I had a Ubuntu boot USB in my pocket for serious social occasions, but having Hiren's as well is a real blessing. Thank You!

[@casedistorted]

I remember having Hiren's on an actual boot DVD-ROM as well, man those were the days.

[@anxiousearth680]

Must be some real hardcore social occassions if you need a Linux for them.

[@theairacobra]

@@anxiousearth680 what's so bad about Linux bruh

[@Jordan-zk2rf]

@@theairacobra tbh i cant think of many social situations that youd need an ubuntu boot usb

[@bantergaming6369]

Perfect timing as im making a windows boot drive while im watching this video

[@armedrepublic]

I use Ventoy and load all of my boot fix tools along with every os iso to do installs as well. I have about 40 iso's on it. Way easier than keeping track of 4 drives

[@NerdPorkArsonist]

I wanted to mention that Linux's filesystem drivers for Windows filesystems (NTFS included) can be more stable when a drive is failing. If a drive is not mounting in windows and is nearing death, I highly recommend trying to mount it in Linux like the Ubuntu live mentioned in the video. I have been able to recover data off a drive before it fully died using this quick tip. Just be careful to only copy what you need first.... If a drive is not mounting it could be on its last leg.

[@klementineQt]

Great tip because I've experienced Windows completely shitting the bed even when the dying drive isn't the one it's on. I've had SATA cables go bad on extra drives and cause the OS to break down functionally until they were replaced

[@JanetDax]

Having an image backup on an external drive has saved me several times.

[@zgboy23]

Do you use Aomei backupper maybe?

[@JanetDax]

@@zgboy23 No, I periodically image the OS drive to an external drive using windows backup.

[@TriuneWorshipper]

Edp moment

[@petersack5074]

good 4 u. Ask Leo preaches this, continuously....

[@danoconnell1833]

Yes! Same here. A full image backup on the free version of Macrium Reflect has saved my bacon twice.

[@androbourne]

@15:40 Another reason for wiping that way is for windows licensing issues. If you perform a factory reset and it was using a MOLP key or retail key it doesnt matter, it will be activated. If you perform a fresh installation of Windows 10 there is no guarantee it will allow Windows to activate. Meaning now you have to deal with activation issues. Thats the main reason us techies use it for.

[@aanchalmittal2063]

Bro you're the best youtube tech channel I've ever seen

[@TallinuTV]

A little piece of software called Ventoy is really useful for stacking multiple separate boot media on a single USB flash drive. Then you just need one or two flash drives big enough to contain all your tools and install media. Though you should verify that anything you put on it actually boots up properly before relying on it.

[@michaelmedlinger6399]

That‘s a lot to take in! First step: Order some USB drives that are large enough to do all this. Most of mine are from the days when a USB drive with 500 MB was HUGE! Yes, I‘ve been around the block a few times! 😎

[@kensmith5694]

500MB Luxury! Monty Python Four Yorkshire Men skit reference Puppy Linux will fit on that BTW.

[@nadtz]

I've been in the habit of grabbing a couple of the store branded microcenter drives whenever I'm there since they are pretty inexpensive. Always keep a few in my bag 'just in case' as well as a few boot drives at home and in the bag.

[@joseislanio8910]

Man, I also have a 512 Mb usb drive, use it mostly for a travel playlist on my car.

[@rmhartman]

One of my favorites is DSL -- Damn Small Linux. A lightweight linux that can boot from a flash drive or CD (not DVD, CD). Includes many of the basics, including (and especially) gparted for partitioning.

[@centurion8446]

Thanks, might see if i can get it ti fit on floppy disk to use with ancient laptop which won't recognise had if it fits...

[@Ketsui.]

7:41 - Thio mentions HP and I instantly start having bloatware flashbacks

[@PythonScratcher]

I am using hp

[@PythonScratcher]

It comes with junk that I think there’s still a bit on my system

[@suburbanite11]

Seek help. That’s real trauma.

[@mrbishi634]

Maybe before, but the hp laptop I bought last year doesn't have any. Actually, I found out that the recovery image was corrupted when I tried to to Reset this PC, and when I tried doing a clean install I had problems with drivers. hp support directed me to download a special 32 GB recovery drive image and after I used it to reinstall hp's recovery image on the SSD and restore from that, everything worked perfectly.

[@eb924]

that pfp just fits with that comment

[@kuroisuuu]

You know Thio, its quite an interesting situation here - I only remember you back from the IT-Troll days. Im not going to lie, its probably why I havent really watched any of your videos in years, knowing that the videos might just be trolls in the end and I'm not looking to watch a video with that style as of late. Its really cool seeing you do proper IT related videos that are super informational. Im just thinking of all the people that, just like myself, havent really watched your videos anymore because they just assume theyre still in the same fashion as your earlier videos.

[@rpst39]

I had a ubuntu live usb and when my father's laptop hdd died so while waiting for the new one to arrive he was able to somewhat use the laptop with it.

[@LunaBari]

Hdd? Do you mean something else?

[@rpst39]

@@LunaBari Nope, he wanted to go as cheap as possible so he went with an hdd instead of an ssd. And if he listened me and got at least an 7200rpm one instead of a 5400rpm one it might have been at least slightly less bad, but no he went with the cheapest possible. And he sure regretted buying an hdd.

[@srpenguinbr]

If you intend to use only a web browser and basic included software, then there are several Linux distros that can easily serve this purpose however thumb drives are always prone to accidental removals and USB ports are usually very limited in number

[@LunaBari]

@@rpst39 I might have been unaware of what an hdd is.

[@rpst39]

@@LunaBari HDD is hard disk drive. The old and slow ones that spin, and also cheaper than ssd's. SSD is solid state drive. It has no moving parts so it consumes less power and generally more reliable than a HDD. And they are also fast. They are more expensive than a HDD but in the last few years they got cheaper. People now generally use SSD's for storing the operating system because they are very fast.

[@hedgeearthridge6807]

I keep a few around, though I just use Linux. 1. TAILS-OS. Even if you never use it or have no reason to use it, it's good to have around in case of SHTF 2. Kali Linux XFCE with Persistence set up. A great little portable operating system with some fun tools included, if you know what I mean. 3. Manjaro XFCE. In case I bork my systems and need a USB drive to recover it or even completely re-install (frequent data backups FTW) 4. I usually keep Linux Mint on a DVD for just in case. It was my first distro, and I still love it.

[@sambhavkothari1408]

One of the hidden gem of KZbin.!! Totally underrated channel you deserve more millions. Thanks for the great content.

[@cheetahkin]

Just want to give massive gratitude for inspiring me to use up 4 spare 16GB USB 2.0 drives for creating emergency boot drives, anything can and will go wrong in IT and I really appreciate having a backup plan!

[@brodriguez11000]

Taking an old drive from one's last upgrade and install windows on that with all the drivers and everything. Pop that into the machine and the "other windows" drive connected for being worked upon whatever made it unbootable.

[@jamesb1221222]

Thanks for the info. Haven't used HBCD since it ran a cut down version of XP, but it was extremely useful even then. Can't wait to try ventoy so I can substitute my 10 usb drives for 1. Have a great day

[@GameLinerSaikou]

4 boot drives to make, and this 1 boot camp of a vid 😊 thx for this bro.

[@kakarroto007]

*Fun Fact:* Rufus can make all of these USB disks, even Windows. You might notice that if you visit the Microsoft Windows download page from a non-windows machine, (or just spoof your browser agent as a Linux/Macintosh with a plugin), they have they most current Windows 10 .iso _just sitting there_ that you can download: *for free.*

[@arnabs2009]

or use rufus to download the iso (yes you can do that) 😎

[@kakarroto007]

@@arnabs2009 That's an epic tip. i actually just discovered that a couple weeks ago, making a fedora live usb. i clicked on download to see what would happen. to my pleasant surprise, it seemed Rufus has literally every build of Windows 10 available.

[@kakarroto007]

@@arnabs2009 and windows 8 too, if i recall correctly.

[@johnmcnicholas1691]

Awesome tips thank you Joe. I use these often and have noticed that when using these PE drives you may also have to disable secure boot in the BIOS

[@carlallison9530]

Thanks ThioJoe you are always giving out computer knowledge and I appreciate your giving and your heart to help which is what love is .

[@schneensch]

You can use VenToy to use multiple ISOs on one USB-Stick .

[@daleryanaldover6545]

Good to see the good 'ol Hiren boot cd at the very first tip, I remember fixing our neighbor's computer using my dad's hiren boot cd back in the day.

[@blueflameppn]

Fantastic video. By the way, if Ubuntu sounds too big or RAM-heavy for your computer, Lubuntu (very light-weight Ubuntu) also has the same ability of being booted from a live USB, and just like Ubuntu, you can do stuff, try/install it, etc.

[@BittenHand19]

Wish I had the Hiren's stick this morning. Could have saved me from reformatting an entire system. I've made one now

[@AskIveSolar]

Good to know hirens is still out there

[@lianakriebel]

Actually, before I had bootable USB drives, I had a system image. The time I broke my laptop and had to send it in for repair, I discovered Macrium Reflect and created my first backup system image. I do probably need to get big external hard drive to store some more system backups...

[@XInfinity2024]

Good video. I would honestly suggest to make a System Recovery Image so that if your system has that glitch then you can still use that one as another option.

[@RiverCat999]

Great video. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this and your other videos. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

[@KJ-xt3yu]

:) the usb switch blades, I would suggest usb 3.0 or better due to speeds but you can get by with 2.0 just takes a bit longer.

[@GileadMaerlyn]

You can have all of those on a single drive with Ventoy. (EDIT: Not the recovery drive I believe) And you can still use it like a regular USB drive and store files on it.

[@yigitkucuk6271]

Lifesaver!

[@ThioJoe]

Thanks I appreciate it! 😁

[@mjayjock1]

Another great video. I really do not know how you are continually able to come up with such great content!

[@emorysmith197]

Dude, I watch so many of your videos, and as always this one doesn't disappoint. Thanks for this awesome video on boot drives. I have been struggling with old laptops that is messed up and need to start fresh. This is the tool I need. Thanks!!!!!!

[@RejectKing]

Sardu was my go-to until a few years ago; then Yumi. I'm going to have to look into Ventoy now.

[@AprilMayRain]

MediCat is what I use and it has SAVED me multiple times!

[@veritassyfer1185]

I agree 100%. I have al these and some others in a small zip-box I keep on me when I have to go on the field. Hiren CD really is clutch.

[@Dark00Wolf79]

Thank you sir. Hiren's BootCD was a revelation. And I just so happened to have an old 2 gig drive sitting around doing nothing. Perfect! :)

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

Really useful info! Thank you very much. Just one question, is there an equivalent for a tablet and/or phone running Android? Cheers!

[@samulimahkonen8604]

Hei ThioJoe! Make a sequel video to this with Ventoy. 😎

[@cindrmon]

he sure does need to

[@jackkraken3888]

Ventoy is basically the holy grail of bootable USB drives. I just updated mine and it has even more features.

[@cindrmon]

@@jackkraken3888 ohh nice!

[@kneonspace]

I personally would recommend easy to boot. Haven't tried ventoy jet.

[@jackkraken3888]

@@kneonspace You're in for a treat then. The way Ventoy works is really smart, once you format a USB drive with Ventoy can use it normally and just drop ISO images anywhere on the drive and Ventoy will find them when you boot with it. Furthermore you can update Ventoy version on any USB without having to wipe the drive! Now i have had some compatibility issues with it not working on some older PCs but most of the time it works very well and even supports UEFI.

[@rodrigoalejandroneumanncaf5319]

There's a great tool called Ventoy that makes it possible to boot directly from ISOs without having a lot of USB drives, you can have a large USB drive o external disk formated and prepared with Ventoy and filled with ISOs of Windows, Linux or any system you need to boot.

[@Wreighn]

Ever heard of ventoy?

[@dualbrainr]

ThioJoe you got me as new subscriber. Do have any vids showing how to completely clean an extra hard drive of its bootable Windows installation? I’d like to use it for storage. Thanks for this video on bootable usb drives. Handy to know.😊

[@lucadoesthings]

This is amazing, thank you for the cool & helpful content

[@george.carlin]

13:10 LTS means Long Term Support ( not service ) PE I learned from you Joe, I thought it's PreBoot Environment but like you said it's Preinstallation Environment. Thanks for the great video.

[@rwashi]

I used WindowsFX a Linux distro and I managed to recuperate most of the fles on the HDD.

[@Fr4nk4000]

I never even thought of preparing drives like this, this is such a great idea

[@NLSasuga]

I'm a big fan of using VHD's for my OS's. VHD's are normally used by Hyper-V virtual machines but you can boot your physical machine from VHD as well. What I do is create one OS image that is nicely cleaned up and then create two differencing disks. One I use for gaming, the other is for all my other software. I install everything I need on these two images, tweak them even further then create another differencing disk of both images and use those to boot from. If something messes up, I simply recreate the differencing disk from the other boot option and all is well again. It's not recommended for 'production environments' but I don't consider my home computer a production environment. ^_^ It uses a lot of space on your SSD's but it's worth it, IMO. I turn off system restore points, since I never really trust an OS installation once it became messed up anyway. Once every while, I update the main image an recreate the other images, compete with all software updates. This keeps my OS fast and stable. And you can easily test out some software and revert to a clean image if you decide not to use it. It seems like a hassle to get it to work this way, but it's not that bad. I wish Microsoft would extend their support for this method of installing Windows.

[@ercanyilmaz8108]

Hiren's boot disk is very handy. Especially the Sysinternals utilities and the password reset utilities are very handy. Some laptops have also internal testing tools which you can access by the boot menu.

[@zervo]

You can use Ventoy on a big USB drive and have all boots on it.

[@afrazkhalid]

wow i tried ventoy... grate detailed description .. thank you..

[@Vishvajeetsinh]

0:02 Oscar Winning Acting 🤧🤯🤯

[@skwest]

By the way, thanks for going to the trouble of cataloging/indexing the various locations and tasks you present. This is precisely the kind of addition that this type of instructional video benefits from the most.

[@johnwesley256]

I think you should've added Snappy Driver approx. 20 gigs, it has pretty much all the drivers for almost everything. I would've also mentioned Gandalf win 10 PE as a alternative to Hirens. I think Gandalf is about 5 gigs.

[@escapefelicity2913]

That PIA sounds good; but I don't do recurring pay,ents. It's usually easy to start them. The same can not be said for stopping them.

[@motoryzen]

" I don't do the recurring pay,ents" I'd you have a cellphone other than Trac fone...yes you do . Otherwise you don't have cellphone service. If you have ANY internet connection that you pay for what so ever...YES you do. Don't know what on set you think you've been on all this time, but you're on Earth. That's your reality check

[@ColdSphinX]

As someone without an OEM PC I'd recomend an USB drive with Snappy Driver Installer Origin.

[@prodbyreezy]

would it make sense to shrink a partition and then add this as a new one on a non primary drive?

[@BetaMaster2]

a better version of hbcd is falconfour's ultimate boot cd, it's mostly focused on changes to mini xp but it has some more features and it's pretty useful

[@ThioJoe]

Good to know

[@joelcarson9514]

Some PCs seem to Not want to boot from a USB 3.0 flash drive. You might want to make the boot flash drives with a USB 2.0 drive. This does seem to apply mainly to older PCs that you need to completely re-do the whole OS on because either the original drive died and you are replacing the OS in total.

[@avejst]

Great video as always 👍 Love that you go all the way, with 4 options Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀

[@raviexthegod]

When it comes to data recovery and system repair, I would say that Kali Linux is your best option for a linux distribution to do the job. It's packed with a ton of tools professionals use and it's fairly easy to use. it's like Windows PE. you might just want a GUI you can use but need more freedom than windows will ever allot.

[@Thisisnttravis]

Other ideas: have an offline Wikipedia flash drive

[@PearlX9]

Bro tell us what is the difference between Installation Media and Disk Image ISO. Secondly my question is, if you use USB Installation using Rufus and ISO file to install windows 11, will it wipe out programs, setting, data and files from your drives? Including even settings you previously entered in Group Policy and Registry editor?

[@id104335409]

No! The worst experience ever is when Windows says "You Need to Format the Disk before You Can Use It" on your porn drive.

[@richardkm5355]

Lol. You're sick

[@ronaldmango7064]

What the hell.

[@ronaldmango7064]

You meant hard drive not p... drive.

[@JR-ef3by]

No when the drive says please insert a disk

[@theblackcatvieweraccount5402]

No, when windows "fixes" your USB that has ALL of your personal files (passwords, small business that's taking you years to develop, games you cannot get anymore, etc. ) on it and you have no backup, during boot by formating it.

[@michaelzoran]

QUESTION: Why did Medicat leave me with so many "Quarantined" items in Windows Defender, even though I selected the option to allow the Medicat installation in Windows? I have an 11-year-old Dell Optiplex 390 Desktop that has a 512GB SSD from Samsung, which is what the Desktop boots from. This SSD is in "Legacy" mode in "MBR" and "Secure Boot" is not something that can be used. One thing that was different about my installation compared to your video is that there was a reference to some sort of contest that was going on - which made me think there might be malware or spyware. I just came back to the computer and saw Medicat says "Everything is ok." It says "29652 files checked." There is a green check mark. But there is a red "x" that says "There were 43 missing files." In Windows Defender, it says two programs in particular were stopped. It gave me the option to "Block" or "Quarantine" or "Allow" those programs. I did not know what to select, so I simply restarted the computer. Those two programs were "PUA:Win32/Passshow" and "PUADIManager:Win32/Installcore" What are your thoughts on this? Should I allow those programs with Windows Defender? What is the significance of having 43 missing files like that? Should I press any key to continue? Or should I allow the PUA files in Defender first? In Defender "Protection History" it shows 39 files that were "Quarantined" today - presumably from that Medicat App. I actually clicked on "Press any key to continue" at that point, and it looks like the installation of Medicat was complete - presumably without the 43 missing files and the 39 files that were "Quarantined." What are your thoughts? I'm concerned this link to Medicat may have given my computer a virus or trojan or potentially influenced my computer with some form of unwanted app. I've run Windows Defender, Malware Bytes, and another antivirus program. They say the computer currently does not have any virus problems. What should I do with those 39 Quarantined programs? Should I "Delete" or "Block" them?

[@GamingCookster]

One of my community college classes told us how to use almost all of these. Best class ever. Thanks for the refresher video :)

[@henry55430]

I love you theo. You know funny enough back when you would post the joke videos I would actually take them seriously. Eventually I learned that they were joke videos and I stopped watching you for a while. But then I heard you were making actual videos and I had to come check it out. I can't believe it! You're actually helping people now. Thank you thio. Please never go anywhere

[@jimlascola]

I use Hirens Practically every day in the field !!!

[@callmexxjacobxx]

I have them in my tool kit

[@potterteksmith7548]

I keep a bunch of small USB drives on a keyring for emergencies and I'd add a couple to your list IE Acronis for backups and Boot Repair. I've pretty much weaned myself off Windows these days but still have a dual boot setup of Win10 and Linux Mint and those Apps are not OS specific. If Boot Repair and Hirens etc can't fix it then a full partition recovery will (as long as the problem isn't hardware failure). I've had a HDD totally die without warning losing everything and Acronis makes recovery easy by swap in a new drive, recover latest backup(s) onto it and up and running in a short time ;) An App for putting multiple ISO's (various OS's) on a single bootable USB drive is WinSetupFromUSB allowing all those bootable packages to be on a single USB drive.

[@NaitorStudios]

Medicat is a really nice alternative to Hiren's PC

[@rodsco357]

Great video'S ! Hiren worked like a charm on my 15 years old system running VISTA os. ;-) Thank you

[@Robin-ym1jy]

I'd always have a gparted live drive, way faster than booting Ubuntu and installing gparted.

[@nuc5042]

Mint ISO has GParted preinstalled

[@thezmaze]

@@nuc5042 Official Ubuntu ISOs have gparted preinstalled too

[@kensmith5694]

@@nuc5042 Yes, and Mint is a darn good OS to switch to when you get tired of the Windows BS. BTW: I am typing this on Puppy Linux, not Mint so I am not biased.

[@davechupp7922]

I have used all 4 of these so far to some degree. This is valuable information. Thank you.

[@gabrielcoelho1623]

Just a thing to add to the video: you can't access your Windows files from your Ubuntu Live USB if your Windows drive is protected by Win10's BitLocker

[@Trekeyus]

sudo apt install dislocker

[@marchalthomas6591]

Medicat is also very useful, with a live mini windows 10, bootable acronis, several antivirus and bootable anything by just dropping the .iso on the usb stick. Plus a bunch of useful tools to troubleshoot your pc. Only downside is that the making of the drive is a bit peculiar. Not for everybody. But still it's a powerful tool to have.

[@SwankyDirectorYT]

Actually, you only need 3 usb. This is because: 1. Stores windows pe/unbuntu 2. Stores compressed files 3. Usb drive to boot into individual os's.

[@brhestervids]

I wanted to mention that you should put a caveat about using FAT32 in that it takes forever to boot as compared to a NTFS partition. Theres a huge difference in boot time. If at all possible the flash drives should NTFS for anything Windows. I used Ubuntu's defaults as it boots super fast.

[@MrBrewsk]

At the screen you are showing at 5:34 you can also press Shift+F10 and it will open a Admin CMD prompt. That definitely comes in handy.

[@TheBACK001]

but I only have 3 usb's

[@shreejitpahari]

@@TheBACK001 use ventoy

[@shreejitpahari]

Use ventoy

[@thomas1699]

ThioJoe, I created some of these drives right away. I put the Windows Boot Drive and the Recovery Drive in the case that I carry that laptop in. Always handy. The link to MS was a big help, too. It really did take a long time, but it needed doing. Cheers!

[@rty1955]

Thanks Joe. Although I have not used Windoze since win-95, I always look at the troubles Windoze user have each day. I never had any viruses, or had to reboot due to a software issue. Once you use Linux, everything makes sense, unlike the other o/s that wants to re-invent the wheel or change industry standard nomenclature. I have a 7 foot rack of machines and lots of raspberry PIs all running Linux. What a pleasure. Im not bashing Windoze, I just am grateful there is something MUCH better than what Redmond is pushing.

[@jsmithepa]

You missed a Macrium Reflex recovery dongle. For decades now I believe if you have to go into recovery, it maybe too late, things are too messed up, may take a prohibited amount of times to recover, but if you kept good backups, BAM! The other day I tried to install 2 OS on the same machine and $^%@ MS, instead of staying on its own lane, messed up my other partition's BCD, and unable to recover, Lo and Behold Macrium has a built-in BCD fix and BAM! Between Macrium, Disk Manager and Diskpart, I can recover most disk/boot errors without pulling my hairs out.

[@HR-wd6cw]

The two biggest ones I can see that people SHOULD have is a Windows installation USB key and a WinPE or bootable environment that lets you access your Windows install and data. I also keep a bootable/live CD of some LInux distros as well (on CD).