Ventoy: Multi-boot USB Drive Tool

[@Darkk6969]

Ventoy is an absolute time saver. No more fumbling through USB flash drives. Updating the ISOs is a matter of going through them via the file manager or CLI. You can also create folders to keep things organized.

[@GrdDog]

Is there a place that has a wide selection of "iso's" to download for Ventoy and if so what is the link?

[@ExplainingComputers]

Each OS publisher creates and publishes its own ISO files, so I've never come across a (legal) site that hosts loads of them. However, you can easily learn about loads of Linux distros on distrowatch.com/ (and from there visit the sites and download). Or there is a lost of popular distros on the EC Linux page: www.explainingcomputers.com/linux_videos.html

[@lorderectus1849]

Google is your friend!

[@jarvisfamily3837]

@@lorderectus1849 So...GIF files..? :-)

[@GrdDog]

@@lorderectus1849 Google can also be your enemy.

[@VerboseChicken]

Hey Chris a few years ago I watched your video about building a budget gaming pc and built the exact same one you did to get me started. This weekend my middle son and I rebuilt all three of my kids pcs together. I just wanted to say how helpful that start you gave me into pc building was those years ago. Now my entire household plays and works on pc and my son and I have another fun hobby to do together.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear this. :)

[@gtibruce]

Hi, i have an old Toshiba Satellite 650 on windows 10 that first accepted Virtual Box but when later downloaded a techstream file used to set up a pass through device to analyze my car that you can buy on eBay it seemed to be that what then stopped Virtual box opening up again. Virtual Box is required to enable using Windows XP. to make the install successful. So instead of messing around trying to sort out what is corrupted on this machine could i use Ventoy to get XP to work from it or install a fresh Virtual Box whatever!?

[@f1ggyc]

Something I think is underrated about Ventoy is that even if you're not installing multiple operating systems all the time, you can still store normal data on the Ventoy partition along with the ISOs. So now if youve got a 128gb USB drive then you can use 8GB for windows without wasting the other 120 GB! (and if you want to install a different operating system then you don't have to format the USB drive so your data stays intact.)

[@iNowHateAtSigns]

This is what I wanted to know... thanks. So you don't need a designated data partition to share amongst the various OSes you might be using.

[@abadbronc]

Yes! I like to keep extracted driver cab files in folders alongside my iso files.

[@Emancipatriot]

Came to be another person agreeing and confirming you can indeed store any data. I love how ventoy only needs to be flashed ONE time, and then it’s just drag and drop from there with your .iso/data. I don’t understand when I see KZbin tutorials involving balena etcher for this purpose. It takes the entire drive and must be flashed to the drive. Ventoy uses a grub interface too. Which is familiar!

[@skyewalker40]

Did an M.2 USB adapter with a one TB drive. Pretty nifty, roomy, and speedy.

[@Emancipatriot]

My usb thumb drive bit the dust and I had a spare 128gb ssd so I just bought an optical drive hdd caddy for my laptop to give it a second drive that is ventoy AND files that I copy / move a lot. I gotta say: the sata connection is so much faster than even 3.0 usb in my case. I can copy isos to it in seconds instead of a minute or two

[@legojenn]

Thanks. I'm not a distro hopper or someone that services other computers, but it's still nifty to have multiple ISO files on the same thumb drive. It is a waste of resources to fill a 128 Gb with a 2 Gb image. The big advantage is that updating the ISOs is a simple matter of drag and drop. I love your demonstrations of the possible even if an immediate need is not apparent. It is always appreciated.

[@RoboNuggie]

Seems like a handy tool - thank you Chris! Enjoy your Sunday 🙂

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your support, most appreciated. :)

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Ventoy looks like a very useful little tool. I think that a Ventoy drive full of ISO files must be more compact and easier to keep up with than a binder full of burnt installation discs. Great video as always!

[@Okurka.]

Burnt installation discs? Welcome to 2023.

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

@@Okurka. Thanks! 😆

[@yensteel]

I have a damn keychain of them. Gonna try this out!

[@darsparx]

It really is bc then I can chuck memtest++, clonezilla, and other stuff in there too. I've been using it for like a year now. I would never go back to solely using etcher ever unless this died somehow. And as a distro hopper still this is a lifesaver for me 🤣

[@christopher9727]

Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@markconger8049]

Ventoy tip: if you have a lot of ISOs on the drive it is more useful to organize them into subfolders and then use Ventoy’s treeview mode. This effectively makes Ventoy menu driven. I have Linux desktop distros (e.g. Mint, Debian, Ubuntu), Linux utility distros (e.g. Clonezilla, Medicat), Windows installers, firmware updaters (e.g. Samsung and Western Digital SSD, Lenovo laptop) and more. Also, it may not have been obvious in the video, but you can copy files other than bootable images. So mp4 files, PDFs, Word and Excel, etc.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Very useful post, thanks for sharing.

[@kote315]

Ventoy is one of the tools that I love. I used to carry a dozen flash drives with me, now I only carry two or three. But please note that not all images are supported. Some of them simply won't boot, some don't work correctly. As an example, there was a problem with LMDE - in live mode everything worked fine, but after installation you got a broken system (most likely older versions were affected by this problem, now it seems to have been fixed, but I haven’t tried it)

[@kote315]

By the way, I express my gratitude to Thio Joe, I initially learned about Ventoy from his video.

[@xrafter]

​@@kote315 Don't forget the commentators who swapped his attention to Ventoy.

[@kote315]

@@xrafter and developer(s)😄

[@bluephreakr]

I use Ventoy. There are some peculiarities you seem to have missed out on in the beginning. If you want to use this on a modern boot system, you kinda need to use GPT as partition style. _Otherwise_ people will be confused as to why it isn't working on most modern machines. MBR (really, MS-DOS) partition style will only work on older, "Legacy boot" machines. If you are able to use the USB device with GPT-formatted disk table in modern boot mode _and_ you have legacy boot / "CSM" enabled as an option, then depending on firmware of the mainboard in use you must be careful of what you select as your boot device. If you see the same device referenced by device name _and_ attached port, *without* seeing if the selections are modern or legacy then the device name will be modern boot, device _port_ will be legacy boot. *The above is very important to understand.* If you are going to dual-boot systems, _and_ you initiate a live session via legacy mode to install the system in a GPT-formatted disk then you _won't_ be using modern boot where the Linux or BSD system would otherwise use an existing ESP (or one of your selection) during installation. Overwriting the MBR in a disk with Windows usually isn't catastrophic, but for safety sake, if you are using a modern boot system then *please* set partition style in Ventoy2Disk to GPT. A note about Secure Boot: if you use it, then you are limited to Windows and Linux systems which support it initially (effectively, Ubuntu and Fedora). Otherwise you have to add the Secure Boot support yourself. _Not only that_ you also need to enroll the disk Ventoy is on if you are going to use it with Secure Boot in the first place. So there's some extra tomfoolery you can immediately skip by disabling Secure Boot but then you ignore an important provision against rootkit attacks on the mainboard UEFI during use in Windows. (Not that it matters, there is malware which can bypass Secure Boot provisions, like BlackLotus that should be of greater concern.) Windows installation caveats; not all machines like Ventoy as boot method, declaring a driver problem that isn't able to be bypassed easily by an end-user, and which can be avoided by using an alternative means, such as Microsoft's intended method of using the Media Creation Tool for Win10 / Win11, writing the installer files from ISO to a USB device then adding the system's corresponding MBR for an MS-DOS system or using WoEUSB in Linux systems to make the Windows installation media from an existing ISO. Overall, Ventoy is a utility that gives the end-user great power. But its default configuration may lead to users making many mistakes and encountering undue difficulties. It is certainly a wonderful tool, if you treat it with the reverence and fear demanded of something that can unintentionally be cause for a system to malfunction, or _at the very least_ not function as an end-user may expect.

[@grampi68]

Thanks for taking the time to write this detailed explanation of which I understood only about one half. I will re-read until I do understand better. At least you have pointed out some pitfalls.

[@DavidG2P]

Very important information that seems to be missing even on the Ventoy homepage.

[@bluephreakr]

@@grampi68 I did neglect to mention about the whole MBR thing when making your own installation media; if not using WoEUSB and the system is legacy boot, you can (as I've done so myself, so personal experience) write the ISO contents to disk, then install and run ms-sys to make it bootable by writing the corresponding MBR to the DOS-formatted USB device. Anything 7 and above uses the Windows 7 MBR. Anything prior should use the available selections ms-sys provides.

[@ypat90]

A very useful tool that deserved to be showcased so well by you. Only bad thing, any video where Mr. Scissors and Stanley the Knife are missing in action make me yearn for more.

[@klwthe3rd]

Awesome comment! Love it.

[@SeedMan-s7c]

I love ventoy and always carry around a usb woth 12 operating system images for different architectures. Not that I need it often, but when I need it it’s there! Whenever I see an obsolete unused computer I install a Linux on it! Also great work Chris! Thanks for so many high quality honest videos!

[@dant5464]

Good to see Ventoy getting the spotlight. It's quite handy when you have a bunch of tiny, rarely-used images, things like Memtestx86 and DBAN. Saves having to dedicate a USB stick to them, or having to rewrite a stick with Rufus when you need them.

[@Crinale13]

I have two questions about Ventoy; 1. Does it bypass GPT and MBR requirement? 2. Do I need IRST driver when I try to install computer? Because some computers can skip IRST

[@rbruce25]

Okay this tool I love. I loaded Ventoy on a 128 GB flash drive, copied all my install images to it and now I can install from any ISO I have and I do not have to juggle flash drives or even find them when I need them. I just created 2 one for use and one for backup in case the first get damaged. It also will load tools like Partition Wizard. The is a FANTASTIC tool

[@Wythaneye]

Thanks for the video! Ventoy has been on my to-do list for some time now and your video was enough to convince me to get it working. I have a handful of USB sticks for repairing/imaging/modifying PCs and having all my tools on one stick will be a game changer. I should point out one thing you overlooked, though, in that you made no differentiation between MBR and GPT. The GUI tool allows for both, and depending on which system I'm working on, I have to use one or the other. Easy enough for me to just have 2 Ventoy sticks, one for each system type, but it's definitely worth noting, especially if your Ventoy stick doesn't boot.

[@tbone9900]

Thank you for showing me the browse feature in Ventoy. Been using Ventoy for a few years and had no idea that you can browse for ISO files on the local machine. In Mint Mate, the right click menu has an option for Open in Terminal. Other Linux flavors might also have the same option. If you browse to the folder that you want, right click and select Open in Terminal, it will open Terminal already pointed to that folder. This short cut saved me a lot of typing.

[@lawrenceallwright7041]

Been using Ventoy for some time, but thank you for bringing it to people who might not be familiar, and showing how simple it is to install and use. "Most Excellent!"

[@alexeisavrasov888]

Thank you for this video walk-through. I've installed Ventoy and improved my Linux knowledge of files and terminal operations a bit more (self-confessed lazy Linux user). I wanted to follow you exactly after things weren't working, and find out what I was doing wrong, very basic things like extracting the file and running it. Excellent video! I moved from Windows (about 10 years) to Linux (mint) - now almost 4 years. And I've never had to re-install the OS once, or had any serious issues, even though I've blundered about...the difference is night and day. But I had to comment when you said you had to hack Windows to get copy/paste on your right-click mouse menu. What the?! Incredible...hard to believe...but there it is. The things you miss when you've fallen off the WIndows wagon! Though I did hear that the Windows developers want to go so far as to get rid of the Start menu. It seems like they're trying to go with minimal user control, "let the A.I. do it for you" philosophy. No thanks! Soon we'll be asking permission to go on loo breaks from the all-mighty A.I. Big Brother.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great post!

[@cashmoney2493]

I absolutely LOVE Ventoy! It's definitely one of my favorite pieces of Software and I'm glad to see you cover it and give it some screen time. Ventoy has been a huge time saver for me and makes it to where I don't have to have a dozen jump drives on hand at all time, I can use just the one! Once again... Great Video!!

[@martinwilkinson2344]

Even though I haven't needed it for a few years, it's really nice to be reminded how useful it is, so I don't forget about it. Making this must have been quite a relaxing little exercise after Pi500!

[@KaptainCnucklz]

Love Ventoy. Saved me the hassle of flashing a drive countless times and lets me drop in the ISOs directly. Also saved my hard drive back when my OS bricked and my wonky OEM Dell motherboard wouldn't read any bootable USBs I made.

[@MrWobble666]

Ventoy has been a blessing when it comes to installing operating systems. It's just so easy. Install Ventoy on keydrive, drag and drop ISO files on to keydrive, boot from keydrive and install. Saves so much time and effort, and you can so easily add/change the ISO files to the latest OS versions. Everybody should have a keydrive dedicated to Ventoy, for when they need to reinstall an operating system.

[@Humongous_Pig_Benis]

Hey Chris! It's been a long time I've been trying to solve this problem on an USB stick. Grml does this on a Linux installation but not on USB stick and I wanted to create a minimalist Linux USB install that was just able to boot and run update-grub to update the OS list but I ended up quitting because I was reinventing the wheel the hardest way possible. Turns out Ventoy does precisely what I need in a so much easier way, and allows me to put everything in the USB drive including my much needed procedures folder so I can carry my install disk and personal knowledge base around everywhere it's needed. Backing up files now and trying it on a smaller test drive... Thanks for this video, I'm truly appreciative Chris!

[@donaldwilliams6821]

I've been using it for years, the ability to make directories and use "F3" to view by tree is awesome. I also use old drives in external cases to hold many ISOs but also a lot faster than a USB. There is also iventoy for a nice PXE boot from net turnkey solution. Thanks for the video.

[@Uniblab8]

I've used Ventoy for over a year, I think. It's an amazingly useful tool and takes out the need for Etcher and other programs like that. It makes an accurate live drive ready for installation. Kind of a magic tool if you will.

[@nobie4955]

Finally! Someone makes another video about ventoy! This tool has been my #1 more recommended pieces of software since I found out about it. It's seriously underrated!

[@Evgeniy123]

I have lack of usb drives, it looks like the Ventoy will be my best time saver. Thanks!

[@PatrickConstant]

Just before 5'50, I sat down. Fortunately, otherwise I would have taken off with joy because your presentation was so exciting. And then I learned how to use the F2 key; so, on the ExpliningComputers channel we learn something every day. THANKS.

[@weswheel4834]

tar for that. That looks soooo useful. I don't use Linux ISO images that often but still end up with several USB drives sitting around with old versions on them. Also liked how the Ventoy installer looks like it can be used to upgrade the version of itself as well.

[@k.b.tidwell]

Excellent instructional, Chris! I've tried Ventoy several times over the last few years, but I've always had curious and varied failures in usage, usually relating to hardware. Eventually I gave up and went back to my multi-install ways. I think I'll give it another try in a bit.

[@idowebwork]

Imagine carrying a single USB drive with Windows 7, 8.1, 10, 11, & Ubuntu. Thanks Ventoy for making that possible.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

That's been possible for years, Ventoy is just one way of doing it.

[@Argon32]

@@FlyboyHelosim Nice, please sahre with us some names of other solutions. Yumi for instance, what else?

[@FlyboyHelosim]

@@Argon32 Yeah I had Yumi in mind when I made the comment. Easy2Boot is another one. I'm sure there's more but I can't remember the names right now.

[@sbme1147]

Easy2Boot which was said below. Rufus which you might want for a new Windows installation, Option to take out some of the junk before install. Sardu and Universal USB Installer. I've been using YUMI for many, many years. They have like three versions but I think just concentrating on the one, exFAT and that uses Ventoy. I am just going to take one of mine and switch over to Ventoy since can just drag and drop. It is way easier in that regard. Only thing is YUMI exFAT does work with the newer Secure Boot UEFI though. They use Ventoy with this new version also. I've had to load the newer version a few times before it "took" though so have to be careful. That's why going to take one of my extra ones and try Ventoy after watching this. @@Argon32

[@heckyes]

A hack to enable copy and paste in the right click menu ... my how Windows has changed lol. Great vid!

[@Dac_DT_MKD]

I use a different program called Yumi for about a year now, and it's a great tool that has helped me at work. Not only it's great to have multiple installations, but it's also great for bootable tools like Windows PE, Memory Test, partition tools and many others. It has saved me and my coworkers from the trouble of having one USB stick for each and every OS or bootable tool. Edit: I thought that Yumi was a fork of Ventoy, but a commenter pointed out that it isn't.

[@jeremyloveslinux]

What’s the advantages of Yumi over Ventoy?

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

YUMI is not a fork of Ventoy, it has been around a lot longer than Ventoy has been. They are two projects that do similar things but I am not aware that they share any kind of code base.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

@@jeremyloveslinux There is probably no advantage of YUMI over Ventoy because Ventoy is quicker to use - copy the ISO to the USB stick and you are done. YUMI has to "install" the ISO image on the USB stick so it technically takes a bit longer. However, whilst both tools can have issues with booting some kinds of ISO images, YUMI seems to have fewer issues with ISO image formats. With that said I rid myself of my Microsoft abuser when support for Windows 7 ended, so I only ever use Linux, *BSD and a few other non-Windows ISOs - so I can't speak about compatibility with Microsoft's bloated and privacy-hating OSes.

[@patvickers8189]

I like the ability to drag and drop iso's later down the line no installation no fuss.You would need to make separate thumb drives for mbr or efi.

[@Dac_DT_MKD]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought that Yumi was a fork of Ventoy.

[@regulusstarseed1368]

i been searching for a week for thisinfo and this is the first place i founfd that got it right and i was able to do it flawlessly

[@JendaLinda]

Another neat thing. If Ventoy is already installed on the flash drive, it can be updated to newer version without erasing the entire flash drive. So you don't need to copy all the image files again.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Yes, but you have to be very careful when doing this... as when I did it, it did indeed erase my ISO partition.

[@20SBOI]

Copy ISO files from ventoy drive any location after updating re paste the ISO files again😂​@@FlyboyHelosim

[@andersn1989]

For anyone wondering, Ventoy works perfectly on Intel Macs as well. When creating the USB with Ventoy just make sure to go Options and set the Partition Style to GPT (or Linux). And then boot with option/alt down and select the USB. You might get an error saying something about Secure Boot when booting it, but just wait and it should load. Tested on Macs from 2006 to 2015.

[@CCoburn3]

I don't know how I managed to handle all the excitement! This looks like a useful tool. I don't have a lot of ISOs. I just have Mint and Windows 11. But I can see how this utility could be useful for recovering from disaster.

[@colonelfustercluck486]

this is not so much disaster recovery... rather a fast method of setting up you computer with an operating system. You must first do the Ventoy thing, then send your OS's (ISOs) to it. Then you have a variety of operating system ISO's stored on it. Installing or reinstalling an O/S will give you a nice new shiny OS.. without malware or viruses, and without your files and settings...... That is the Ventoy part, finished. (You have your new O/S now)..... then you need to do disaster recovery.... using a drive with unpolluted data. (I use cloud storage, and local external ssds) If you need to get a computer to boot, recover your existing system including settings and files, you will have to study Win 11 recovery methods, or Linux Mint "System Snapshots".... or better still a paid Linux application (Pay once, great lifetime support... APTIK, it is worth it .......... store.teejeetech.com › product › aptik ) "Baqpaq" from the same company looks very interesting as well...... but I haven't used it yet. These are for disaster recovery. And they work. Do your "system snapshots" or "Aptik" to an external drive from time to time. (I do both). When your computer is working well. Disconnect the external drive. Leave it that way, until you need to back up again and after an O/S reinstallation.... like with major system or file changes. (Any drive connected to your PC/laptop may get corrupted, if and during the time your machine goes down.... that's why I connect to do updated backups, and then disconnect it...... then re-install the new clean O/S , then 'System Snapshots" or APTIK if using linux mint. NO doubt a similar 'time shift' or recovery app is in Windows. If dual booting, install the windows first......... then your other O/S. With Linux, the 'System Snapshots' and "APTIK" have saved my arse a few times over the last 6 years, since I started linuxing. But you have to consciously maintain your back ups. A new O/S installation takes little time. Setting everything up the way that you like it takes a day or two..... if you use the tools mentioned above, the whole disaster is overcome within an hour or two.If you don't do the above, you need another working computer and hours, days of time to sort out a 'disaster'. IF you have your backups sorted out (on separate storage), it will reduce the time and stress significantly..... good luck.

[@PS_Tube]

Great video Chris B. I've been looking for precise tutorials on Ventoy and there weren't many. Thanks a bunch. 👍

[@BoanergesTWELF12]

What a great upload demonstrating Ventoy, it was what i used to get off of Windows when i had an HP Stream, it made distro hopping so much fun also.

[@HamRadio200]

I am so glad this came across my feed. I have actually been wanting/looking for something like this. I've tried it and am very happy with how it works.

[@jpmyers6950]

I've had a hard time getting this to work on Linux and you're video did it. I also had a bad acer keyboard that wouldn't let me get to the bios. All is working now, thanks Chris.

[@kerb755]

what a neat solution, so much better than having to overwrite my usb each time i need a different image.

[@fordonmekochgalenskaper5665]

Really great tool, instead of 4-5 USB-stick for diffrent live tools I now can have one with all diffrent tools. Hadn't heard about it before so thanks

[@DotkesBoi]

Simple and easy to follow guide! it helped me a lot considering I install different operating systems from time to time!

[@oscaretcheverry616]

Ventoy is a fantastic tool. Instead of having a separated drive for each iso, and using etcher every time, I just grab my ventoy drive and put the files there, and ready to go. It's based on grub 2, so I installed a nice grub theme from gnome-look, and it looks awesome

[@hugocardozo8685]

Very interesting! Nowadays I keep several USB sticks around with various live distros / installers, but I had no idea there was a way to keep 'em all together in just one stick, nice.

[@brockm4047]

I have been using Ventoy for the last few years. Every once in a while, some images don't like to boot on each computer but it does do the job overall.

[@Emancipatriot]

Here I was thinking it was just me that had that issue. Because I’d only seem to have on my old laptop (Ivy bridge) . I’ve noticed that sometimes when that happens if I copy it over again and /or rename the iso it will work. Some distros just wouldn’t work at all for me but a lot more worked than didn’t.

[@brockm4047]

@@Emancipatriot Good idea on renaming. Thanks. I'll give that a try. Usually if I'm going to have a broblem it will be with Windows images. Most of the time I boot Linux images and rarely have a problem with those.

[@Emancipatriot]

@@brockm4047 it’s not foolproof, but there is a fair likelihood it would help

[@user-dz3ph7dl4m]

Didn't know about the feature to access the host machine and booting an iso from there - that's great!

[@retiredbecktek]

I was wondering if there was such a iso switching tool and I accidentally run across it : ) Wonderful as I use many bootable USB’s and this will be super handy. I’ve been watching your videos for years. Thks so much.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching!

[@gloiloidn5752]

I did not know about this piece of software but now I know, thanks to you and I understand how incredibly handy it can be! Great video!

[@seireiart]

Ventoy is now my way-to-go to store multiple ISOs and boot from it. easy to use and convenient (I store Windows, couple of Linux Distros, Hiren's Boot CD in one large USB key) previously I had 2 USB keys, one to store Windows ISO, and other a Linux Distro ISO, and I had to reflash them if a new version dropped out or something. One thing I didn't know about, that you can boot images locally (and that's useful indeed for me, since I'm storing them in a separate external HDD) Thanks a lot for the explanation, Chris.

[@CGA111]

I've been using this for the past couple of years, it's so incredibly handy.

[@alyeakitty]

Reminds me of the tool drives/disks we would make back when I worked in IT where we would drop hard drive recovery tools, virus/malware scanners, system information and registry fix software, as well as installation drive images... Problem with those was having to unpack the image to a target drive and install from there. Way easier than carrying around various media but still cumbersome. Ventoy seems like a tool I would have loved to have back then.

[@bigstepper9646]

"I love the tutorial! I really appreciate how you made everything so easy to understand, and especially the way you explain things so precisely-almost like a robot! Definitely following you for more!

[@martink9785]

I wish I’d known about this 3 weeks ago, the hassle I went through making a win 10 installation usb was super painful. Thanks for sharing 😃👍

[@samuraiwarriorsunite]

Thanks as always for the helpful info Christopher, and the trip down memory lane. I haven't thought about Thunderbirds Are Go in years, lol.

[@twentyrothmans7308]

Even though I've been using Ventoy for some time, I didn't know about the alternative .iso boot option - thank you!

[@TheGamer_Zero01]

I need to install windows, Ubuntu and proxmox with one usb. And I forgot about ventoy. Thank you very much for the in time video.

[@309electronics5]

Ventoy is a life saver for me! Have like 90 isos on a flashdrive. Love it!

[@sirma202000]

Thank you for this video, I was looking for a tool to install linux from, I just brought back to life an old HP laptop, one of those with 32Gb integrated Hdd and Windows 10. Took some work though as I've never dealt with this kind of stuff before, thank you very much!

[@alanthornton3530]

Another interesting Sunday video. Ventoy looks to be a handy bit of software to keep in the toolbox, it would've helped when I was distro hopping a few years back. I'll have to check it out thanks for sharing Chris :)

[@giannistsolebas6962]

That video literally blew up my mind 🤯 Ventoy is just a massive hack! Thank you!

[@perrymcclusky4695]

Definitely I can see how Ventoy would be useful for someone who is regularly installing operating systems. Looking forward to your next video!

[@billsmith1246]

Thanks for the demo. I've been using Ventoy for a number of years, now, and didn't realize that I could browse from my HD/SSD/USB Drives. It makes good sense. That way I can change the .iso on my computer and no have to worry about multiple appearances on the Ventoy drive. For some reason when I delete one such .iso from my Ventoy drive and install an updated version of the same, I have two such .iso links to choose from (they may both lead to the same .iso - I don't know).

[@8Jallin]

I actually tried to do this long time ago but gave up, I'll give this a try. Thank you.

[@busterj11776]

Excellent tutorial and thanks for all of the comments and recommendations

[@nasibiryani]

The good thing about Ventoy is that the application is even available on Android, even though it's not the official version, I often use the ISO on the second disk instead of copying files to the Ventoy directory

[@lorderectus1849]

You can 👂 hear the excitement in Chris’s voice when he plays with OSES!

[@tonykeltsflorida]

I have spent the last couple of years getting the where I only use one system, Linux Mint. Ventoy looks like something I would have used in the past. I used to have dual boot and I used to save other people's computers by making them dual boot.

[@EgoChip]

Wow that was quick, I only suggested this last night! I have my Ventoy on a USB drive that has multiple different connectors so it will work with a wide range of devices.

[@ericg7490]

Great video as always. Ventoy is amazing. I did not know about booting an ISO from a storage drive instead of from the USB. Pretty wild. Thanks for showing me how to update it especially on Linux.

[@cdl0]

Ventoy saves so much time and effort that Stanley the Knife and Mr Scissors can relax and take the day off. :-)

[@markanderson2904]

I think they're on holiday!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

A well deserved day off too! And especially for Stanley after last week's video.

[@gootube88]

Brill. I was just looking for a decent multi boot solution since multiboot stopped getting updated, and this is perfect, thanks for pointing it out to us all!

[@thefumigator]

I didn't know this existed, I was into a hardware solution (basically a drive enclosure with a couple of buttons and a simple display) which I was going to purchase, but first things first, I need to test this first. Thanks for the video

[@chromerims]

Jolly delightful as ever 👍 Thank you, EC/Chris! Ventoy . . . I imagine many viewers are desperately enamored with it; good gosh I am. 6:55 -- Local ISO file [F2:Browse] never occurred to me to use or to understand. Plainly magical is how you've highlighted that for us. Kindest regards, friends and neighbours. P.s. A fun variation in Linux grub bootloader (with or w/o Ventoy) is edit options, and therein replace 'quiet' wth 'toram' (or simply add 'toram'). Then, all of one's experimentation is comprehensively labile, as a discretionary choice applicable to select use cases.

[@ep8029]

Thanks for your videos. Crystal clear explanations in every one. Well done, keep up the excellent work.

[@BitsOfTruth]

It also runs Rescuezilla very nicely. I recommend to add this to your ISO library for you disk cloning needs.

[@GertBoers]

Too many comments already to look through them all, so if it's been said before, sorry. But, in the menu under Options you have the possibility to reserve an amount of storage. When Ventoy is installed, I then go to gparted and format that partition with, say, fat32. That way you have always a possibility to store some files you've created when you're in a Live system, or you can copy files from it into your Live system. About that option of starting an ISO from the harddrive, I didn't know. So, thanks!

[@freddyhardware840]

Thanks for this. I was having issues installing Proxmox on a HP Proliant server on a USB flashed with Balena etcher. Boots fine on Ventoy and I can copy multiple ISOs on it too. Brilliant!

[@sbc_soc_tinkerer]

Blessed Sunday greetings Christopher! Thank you so much once again for this informative video. My ONLY criticism about the video is that it took so long to get it uploaded. 😁 Ventoy! Where have you been all my life? Fantastic tool. I could have used this tool dozens and dozens of times in recent memory. Please keep the content coming and stay well!

[@ВасильМариніч]

I used to use Rufus, but after watching the current video about Ventoy, I'm thinking of switching to it. I would like to know about ventoy support for older XP computers... Well done Chris!

[@ijabbott63]

I previously used YUMI for multi-booting from USD disks, but I was pleased when Ventoy came along as it's much easier to use.

[@muhammadsaeed6849]

Thanks for the video. This is the simplest demonstration on how to install Ventoy that I have seen

[@hiker1658]

It would be very interesting to see who the creators of a utility like Ventoy are and what their motivation is for providing a utility like this is.

[@Snoky5313]

Hello Sir, that was a great video. I have used YUMI a lot over the years, Ventoy was always a little buggy depending on the USB Stick/size. But after seeing it here again I will give it another try. I really like the easy way to maintain the ISOs by just copy/paste them. Cheers 🎉

[@aliensounddigital8729]

Love Ventoy. Just copy the iso to the usb ventoy partition and good to go. Also love the fact that you can update the ventoy partitions with newer ventoy versions and you won't lose the iso files already on the usb.

[@arismazimmer9275]

Ventoy is clearly a life-saver... And, the thumbnail looks almost similar to my Ventoy drive... 😀😀

[@MnemonicCarrier]

Ventoy is such a cool tool. I have a fast (not cheap) 1TB flash drive on my key-ring. It has two partitions - one for Ventoy, the other 900GB for my data (things like my .ssh directory, PGP keys, WireGuard configs, docs, videos, gitolite backup etc etc etc...). My data partition is LUKS encrypted.

[@Waldlaeufer70]

Unfortunately, when I tried this out a few years ago, most ISO files wouldn't start. Maybe, I should give it another try. Thanks for sharing your experience, Chris. Clean and concise as always!

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Yeah that is still the case. This video was a very brief overview that made it seem really simple. However, a number of factors can interfere with the effectiveness of Ventoy. It's especially fussy about older systems and legacy OSes, etc.

[@Waldlaeufer70]

Good to know. Thanks.

[@davidwayne9982]

I love VENTOY.... wore out a usb stick using it.. ha. (they WILL eventually fail)...but I was using it A LOT more than the average user ever would... GREAT software!!!

[@Kw1161]

Thanks Chris for alerting me on this very interesting and useful application. I will try it out as soon as I find where I put it…😂! Have a great week!

[@joegee2815]

I started using Ventoy about 6 months ago and it's fantastic. So visiting relatives around the holidays I only need one thumbdrive.

[@christopherleadholm6677]

Hello, fellow Christopher! ...back again!😁 Thank you for this. This will come in very handy. I have heard of this tool but never actually have used it. Good video idea.

[@Geenimetsuri]

I had no idea this existed! This is amazing....Big thanks!

[@angmoh777]

you can also leave unused space after the ventoy partition. That space can be used as a regular usb drive. Rescuezilla, Clonezilla, and Systemrescuecd images can also be copied to the ventoy partition, making ventoy a most excellent multifunction tool.

[@Emancipatriot]

You could just make a folder for other things you want to store as well. But I understand having a second partition. It’s more organized that way.

[@chriholt]

Ventoy is very impressive, thanks for showing it to us Chris!

[@woodwaker1]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and a new level of excitement - glad I was sitting down

[@andrewinstre]

Respect! 😂Christopher Barnatt reminds me of those highly esteemed lecturers of the Open University on BBC2 in the 70s and 80s. They were just fantastic in explaining topics in Physics,Maths,Chemistry etc, He so looks like an Open University lecturer.

[@mattparker9726]

This video makes me think of VLC media player, In that it's a easy to use and free bit of software, that effectively is the de facto must have for video playback. (IMO) I would love to see a video where you show us all what programs YOU use, Chris, that fulfil the criteria.

[@lastinline1958]

Ventoy is the only way I have found to make a reliable Windows install usb using Linux.

[@codyaimes4354]

Ventoy is awesome!!! Ive been using it for years! Thank you for doing a vid on it. You are awesome too!