Recommendations for bootable ISOs to add to Ventoy

hdmi · Nov 2, 2023

Maybe the ELAM (Early Launch Anti-Malware) from Microsoft is intercepting the attempt to boot into the WinPE-based image on the USB flash drive, i.e., in spite of having disabled Secure Boot in the UEFI? On my laptop if I don't disable Secure Boot I can still get the Boot Menu to show by holding down F10 (On an Acer Swift it's F12, right?), but then when I navigate to the USB flash drive by pressing the down arrow key and I press Enter, it automatically navigates back to my Samsung 980 PRO that's the 1st menu option. It doesn't let me boot from the USB until I disable Secure Boot. If I do that, then it lets me boot into DiskGenius with Ventoy perfectly fine. (I tested it... for me it works...)

kelper · Nov 2, 2023

hdmi said:
Could you verify the hash code of the file Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgr.efi (that's inside the DiskGenius - Boot\Boot.wim) with 7-Zip?

Size: 2,297,343,708 bytes
CRC32: 89E91A96
CRC64: 470D4FCBB7FDA927
SHA1: af0461570e046bef824db2b0e1e6c0544b4e5655
SHA256: 1daabfb51e8a289d6db78d98d3f7f94ab69a3799c38bb101751d01b74107788b

They are all different!

Name: bootmgr.efi
Size: 1663776 bytes (1624 KiB)
SHA256: d8f7ebe99fa0a5d98d9ead726dec19c4513425eb838eba15b00a577cd0260c20

kelper · Nov 2, 2023

hdmi said:
Maybe the ELAM (Early Launch Anti-Malware) from Microsoft is intercepting the attempt to boot into the WinPE-based image on the USB flash drive, i.e., in spite of having disabled Secure Boot in the UEFI? On my laptop if I don't disable Secure Boot I can still get the Boot Menu to show by holding down F10 (On an Acer Swift it's F12, right?), but then when I navigate to the USB flash drive by pressing the down arrow key and I press Enter, it automatically navigates back to my Samsung 980 PRO that's the 1st menu option. It doesn't let me boot from the USB until I disable Secure Boot. If I do that, then it lets me boot into DiskGenius with Ventoy perfectly fine. (I tested it... for me it works...)

But I can boot the other iso's on the Ventoy...

BRAC · Nov 2, 2023

kelper said:
Some good suggestions, yes, but none of them work!

Strangely, works for me. But then I don't have to deal with UEFI. As hdmi said, you only have to copy over the Boot.wim to the root of the Ventoy USB. If not it will mess up the Ventoy installation and have to redo.

kelper · Nov 2, 2023

BRAC said:
Strangely, works for me. But then I don't have to deal with UEFI. As hdmi said, you only have to copy over the Boot.wim to the root of the Ventoy USB. If not it will mess up the Ventoy installation and have to redo.

Copying boot.wim to Ventoy does not work and crashes my laptop. I've said this many times here.

SIW2 · Nov 2, 2023

Does your macrium iso have bootmgr.efi on the root ? I bet it does.
And efisys.bin (or efisys_prompt.bin) and etfsboot.com in the iso\boot folder.

Stigg · Nov 2, 2023

kelper said:
Some good suggestions, yes, but none of them work!

That's the problem, mate.
I've tried doing this myself over the years.

That's why I'm gonna watch this thread with great interest to see what actually works.

Ghot · Nov 2, 2023

hdmi said:
Neither one of those two programs let you manage your partitions. (DiskGenius Free is more akin to MiniTool Partition Wizard Free.)

Here's the ISO for the bootable Minitool Partition Wizard 11...

Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

hdmi · Nov 2, 2023

kelper said:
They are all different!

Name: bootmgr.efi
Size: 1663776 bytes (1624 KiB)
SHA256: d8f7ebe99fa0a5d98d9ead726dec19c4513425eb838eba15b00a577cd0260c20

This seems to indicate that you have installed a different (expired?) Windows ADK with WinPE addons. I grabbed this one:

Download and install the Windows ADK

Instructions on how to download and install the Windows ADK

learn.microsoft.com

adkwinpesetup.exe

hdmi · Nov 2, 2023

Ghot said:
Here's the ISO for the bootable Minitool Partition Wizard 11...

Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

One of the main, if not THE main reason to use Ventoy is so you can have multiple alternative choices available at your fingertips with just a single USB flash drive in lieu of a whole box full of USB flash drives complete with polka dotted sticky labels to tell them apart.

kelper · Nov 2, 2023

SIW2 said:
Does your macrium iso have bootmgr.efi on the root ? I bet it does.
And efisys.bin (or efisys_prompt.bin) and etfsboot.com in the iso\boot folder.

The MR bootmgr.efi is the same size as the one on DG. And all those files are present.

KYHI · Nov 2, 2023

Clearly Windows Security is not allowing the Boot - as the Media is missing the required "Trusted Installer" Signature files (Secure Boot Keys)...

Turning "Secure Boot" OFF - will solve the problem...
There is another Whole Topic in regards to this issue with PE/RE
And a Newer Version of Windows ADK to address the issue

SIW2 · Nov 2, 2023

kelper said:
The MR bootmgr.efi is the same size as the one on DG. Ans all those files are present.

You said earlier that bootmgr.efi was not on the root

Recommendations for bootable ISOs to add to Ventoy

I keep trying apps that claim to make a bootable iso from a bootable USB, but they all assume that the USB contains a Windows PE or RE directory setup and all fail to make an iso that Ventoy can boot from. ImgBurn and ISO Workshop are two I tried today.

www.elevenforum.com

kelper · Nov 2, 2023

A "non-destructive" install of DiskGenius ont the Ventoy USB hoses it!

"This is not a standard Ventoy device and is not supported (12)
Error message: <MBR check failed>

It also corrupted the BCD. I was unable to repair this by any of the usual methods, so I have formatted the SSD and am reinstalling windows. I can't boot into my USB HDD to run Macrium Reflect so I am adding the boot menu to the USB HDD on another computer.

SIW2 · Nov 2, 2023

If you are still struggling with this, you could use the little workaround I have illustrated several times before.

Using something like the free anyburn, edit a known working iso file (e.g. your macrium iso file ) . Replace the \sources\boot.wim in the known working iso with the boot.wim from your diskgenius usb stick. Then save the iso as a new name, e.g. diskgenius.iso

Download AnyBurn

www.anyburn.com

hdmi · Nov 3, 2023

Here's some background info on the subject of booting into WinPE.
● https://easy2boot.xyz/troubleshooting-e2b/wimboot-and-the-winpe-boot-process/

Description of the Microsoft WinPE boot process

Wimboot and UEFI

● About bootmgr and bootmgfw.efi

https://superuser.com/a/1333718

● About bootmgr.efi

https://superuser.com/a/1513615

\EFI\BOOT\Bootx64.efi is actually a copy of C:\Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi

bootmgfw.efi starts bootmgr.efi rather than winload.efi when a WIM file is loaded to boot WinPE, Windows Setup or Windows Recovery mode.

glasskuter · Nov 3, 2023

kelper said:
Can anyone recommend some bootable ISOs to add to Ventoy?

Having one of the live Linux distros such as Mint or Ubuntu are handy tools to have on hand. I use both at times. Also Minitool Partition Wizard and Kyhi Rescue

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Help Forums

Created a Custom Windows Rescue Disk using WinPE It allows you access to a non-working system - and provides a visual means to repair the system You w

www.tenforums.com

SIW2 · Nov 3, 2023

We are talking about different things.

Many, many years ago some of us discovered that vista x64 installation dvd when extracted to usb stick wouldn't boot in efi mode.

Word got around that usb efi boot needs an efi boot manager in the usb\efi\boot folder. I expect that was a tip off from microsoft or one of the oems. Can't remember exactly when, might have been 15 years ago.

Booting from iso is different. Efisys expects bootmgr.efi on the root. If bootmgr.efi is missing you will be stuck at "press any key to boot from cd/dvd" for a while till it times out.

Those of us who have been mucking around building custom pe for aeons usually include both.

hdmi · Nov 3, 2023

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ate-the-windows-pe-add-on-for-the-windows-adk

hdmi · Nov 3, 2023

SIW2 said:
Booting from iso is different. Efisys expects bootmgr.efi on the root.

The root inside the Boot.wim file, yes. Not the root inside the iso file. But the whole point of using the Wimboot plugin for Ventoy is to be able to boot straight into the Boot.wim file (that you can optionally rename to make it easier for you to remember what exactly it is that this file contains) so that you can skip that extra step of having to wrap it inside an iso file, as the Wimboot plugin makes that unnecessary (if it works on your computer, but it does on mine).