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Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

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Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#71

Post by winkelmann »

franga2000 wrote: post #68

Ventoy is great, but what I really miss is DriveDroid from the good old days. It still exists, but it's not quite as reliable on modern Android as it was on rooted Cyanogenmod back in the day and the distro download links have rotten away. For those not familiar with it, it turns your Android phone into a USB DVD drive, meaning not only can you just download and host any distro with a few taps, you also don't need an…

I've been using an IODD 2531 enclosure for many years now, and it's doing pretty much exactly that. It works with any ISO I throw at it and has no issues with Secure Boot. It’s also platform-agnostic as it acts as a USB optical disk drive.

There are some shortcomings, like a bug where it doesn't remember the last selected ISO if its filename is too long, files also need to be fully sequential. These might be fixed in their newer models (the 2531 is fairly old).

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#72

Post by protimewaster »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #63
protimewaster wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a valid reason unless you view "this person can't be trusted follow safe practices on Project A so it makes sense to assume they also won't follow safe practices on Project B" as invalid logic.

From the linked thread "I have updated a new 1.0.21 release and removed the unused sig driver file. And I also add a README document about the httpdisk driver https://github.com/ventoy/PXE/tree/master " As in the author responded and removed this and explained why it was in there in the first place. So Ventoy has all it's code audited and documents every case of a binary blob with the source code and instructions to…

My concern is that they grabbed some random driver signed by a random person and just assumed it was trustworthy enough to be included in a project. That's not the behavior I associate with how "extremely trustworthy" projects should be run. I understand others may not agree, though. I also understand that this is a different project, but that behavior kinda makes me feel like any project with those people involved shouldn't be viewed as extremely trustworthy. Are they also running randomly grabbed code on the build machines and assuming it's safe to do so?

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#73

Post by CapsAdmin »

jaderobbins1 wrote: post #61
nutjob2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notably Ventoy doesn't work with some Windows install ISOs.

Any specifics on which windows install ISOs don't work? That way I'll know which ones will need a dedicated USB stick.

Last week I tried to make a bootable usb with windows 11. I tried using dd on macos, and that seemed to work, but the windows installer errored about "not finding drivers for the hdd". This threw me off because I thought something was wrong with the nvme.

Turns out you can't just dd a windows iso onto a usb drive.

You have to format it to fat32, then manually copy all the files. However there is one big installer file which is above 4gb, so you have to get some tool (also provided by Microsoft) to split the file into multiple files less than 4gb. The windows installer will recognize the split files and use those instead.

It's beyond me why the official windows iso just doesn't have this by default...

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#74

Post by guilamu »

nutjob2 wrote: post #43
fumeux_fume wrote: post #11

The nice thing about Ventoy—and I didn’t fully appreciate this until I used it—is how simple it makes bootable USBs. You just drag and drop ISO images onto the drive, and it can hold as many as will fit. When you boot from the Ventoy USB, you just pick the image you want to install or run—no re-flashing, no fuss. It’s honestly wild how convenient it is. Ventoy was the only method that worked for me when I needed to i…

Notably Ventoy doesn't work with some Windows install ISOs.

Never had this issue.

Tested isos: Windows 10 x64 (Pro, LTSC), Windows 11 (Pro, LTSC). I've installed windows on hundreds of computers with Ventoy and it never failed me.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#75

Post by kzshantonu »

jonbiggums22 wrote: post #3

Is it possible to boot a full windows install from this (probably using a VHD image)? I know it would be slow but it would be nice to have something with all my utilities.

You don't have to store the vhd file on the ventoy device. You can keep it on an internal partition and boot from that. After that, the ventoy drive doesn't have to stay plugged in

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#76

Post by fukka42 »

junon wrote: post #47
i4qpLmoptUph3fZ wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The rationale for needing a random driver makes some sense. The statement that they found a random build that was signed by some randy is a horrifying prospect.

Someone compared hashes of the sectors of both drivers and they are identical except for the signature.

You don't know what due diligence was done.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#77

Post by stavros »

fumeux_fume wrote: post #11

The nice thing about Ventoy—and I didn’t fully appreciate this until I used it—is how simple it makes bootable USBs. You just drag and drop ISO images onto the drive, and it can hold as many as will fit. When you boot from the Ventoy USB, you just pick the image you want to install or run—no re-flashing, no fuss. It’s honestly wild how convenient it is. Ventoy was the only method that worked for me when I needed to i…

I would love it if it worked well, but it's been really flaky for me. Maybe half the ISOs work, the rest get various errors on boot and fail. These are Linux ISOS, too, which I would have expected to work.

Am I doing something wrong?

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#79

Post by d3Xt3r »

stavros wrote: post #77
fumeux_fume wrote: post #11

The nice thing about Ventoy—and I didn’t fully appreciate this until I used it—is how simple it makes bootable USBs. You just drag and drop ISO images onto the drive, and it can hold as many as will fit. When you boot from the Ventoy USB, you just pick the image you want to install or run—no re-flashing, no fuss. It’s honestly wild how convenient it is. Ventoy was the only method that worked for me when I needed to i…

I would love it if it worked well, but it's been really flaky for me. Maybe half the ISOs work, the rest get various errors on boot and fail. These are Linux ISOS, too, which I would have expected to work. Am I doing something wrong?

How are you creating your Ventoy drive? I would recommend using GPT. Also be sure to boot your drive in UEFI mode. Finally, be sure to update Ventoy to the latest version, they release regular updates with bugfixes for compatibility issues with various ISOs.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#80

Post by toast0 »

stavros wrote: post #77
fumeux_fume wrote: post #11

The nice thing about Ventoy—and I didn’t fully appreciate this until I used it—is how simple it makes bootable USBs. You just drag and drop ISO images onto the drive, and it can hold as many as will fit. When you boot from the Ventoy USB, you just pick the image you want to install or run—no re-flashing, no fuss. It’s honestly wild how convenient it is. Ventoy was the only method that worked for me when I needed to i…

I would love it if it worked well, but it's been really flaky for me. Maybe half the ISOs work, the rest get various errors on boot and fail. These are Linux ISOS, too, which I would have expected to work. Am I doing something wrong?

Probably not, UEFI boot is terribly fussy and I haven't seen any sort of UEFI image loader similar to memdisk that works for BIOS boot. There's an optional standard for loading images, but I don't think any of my firmwares support it; and I'm not sure if the loaded image is available after boot services terminate anyway.

Linux images have to be processed to pull the kernel and initramfs images out, rather than booting an image, and then if the image used a filesystem after boot, hope it finds it. (This is even messier for PXE, at least with USB, you have a fighting chance)

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