Making a bootable USB drive with multiple iso's

I would like to make a bootable USB drive with multiple iso's. I would like to have both windows 11 and memtest86. The Media Creation Tool for Windows 11 wipes the flash drive. The imageUSB.exe for memtest86 also wipes the flash drive.

So what are the options for having multiple iso's on a usb drive? I know about ventoy, and rufus. Is there a better option? What other options are there?

Ventoy lets you put as many ISO files on a USB as you want so you can select whichever you want during any given boot.
I think that it's therefore a satisfactory solution to your need. Was there a reason you asked about other solutions?

Ventoy
I made these notes the last time I set one up:-
1 Extract the downloaded Ventoy zip to an interim folder.
2 Connect a USB [that can readily be distinguished from all others - I assign a name [a label] to it.
3 From the interim folder, run Ventoy2Disk.exe - it formats the chosen disk as exFat and copies its boot files etc onto it.
4 Then just copy the ISOs you want onto the USB whenever you want.


Denis

There's also Easy2Boot and YUMI. Glim is another one, but it's pretty targeted at Linux people.

I wasn't happy with any of the programs like Ventoy, so I wrote my own . However, I would think that available tools like Ventoy would work fine for 99% of people. I simply had some very specific needs that none of the commercial programs supported. So, just as Denis had asked, I'm curious to know what prompted you to look for other solutions. If you can provide some specifics on capabilities that you are looking for, it's possible I may be able to provide some ideas.

Try3 said:

Ventoy lets you put as many ISO files on a USB as you want so you can select whichever you want during any given boot.
I think that it's therefore a satisfactory solution to your need. Was there a reason you asked about other solutions?

Ventoy
I made these notes the last time I set one up:-
1 Extract the downloaded Ventoy zip to an interim folder.
2 Connect a USB [that can readily be distinguished from all others - I assign a name [a label] to it.
3 From the interim folder, run Ventoy2Disk.exe - it formats the chosen disk as exFat and copies its boot files etc onto it.
4 Then just copy the ISOs you want onto the USB whenever you want.


Denis

Click to expand...

I like to experiment with different software. When I started I had not used any of the software before so do not know what all the options are.

hsehestedt said:

I wasn't happy with any of the programs like Ventoy, so I wrote my own . However, I would think that available tools like Ventoy would work fine for 99% of people. I simply had some very specific needs that none of the commercial programs supported. So, just as Denis had asked, I'm curious to know what prompted you to look for other solutions. If you can provide some specifics on capabilities that you are looking for, it's possible I may be able to provide some ideas.

Click to expand...

I like to experiment with different software. When I started I had not used any of the software before so do not know what all the options are.

What things were you testing that you could not do?

cokedude said:

What things were you testing that you could not do?

Click to expand...

I needed a bunch of custom functionalities. I've included stuff like this:

1) Even if I have no ISO selected to boot, the flash drive is bootable so that it can be configured on a system that won't even boot Windows. Once booted you get a menu allowing you to select an ISO. Reboot and this time it will boot the ISO image.

2) If you select a Windows image to boot, you will then get a menu showing all available answer files and allowing you to select one to include.

3) If you don't select an answer file, the program asks if you want to create one on the fly. You answer a few questions, and it generates an answer file right then and there and incorporates it into the current project.

4) It has a "refresh" feature that will allow you to update Windows PE (that is what it boots when no ISO is selected) on the fly without losing all the other data on your flash drive. This ensures that you are always at the most recent version without any need to recreate the flash drive from scratch.

5) When creating the disk, it can automatically create additional partitions so that you have a place to keep other data. It can also automatically setup BitLocker on any added partitions.

There is more, but you get the idea.