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- Fixed 4 broken markdown links (bad relative paths in See Also sections) - Corrected n8n port binding to 127.0.0.1:5678 (matches actual deployment) - Updated SnapRAID article with actual majorhome paths (/majorRAID, disk1-3) - Converted 67 Obsidian wikilinks to relative markdown links or plain text - Added YAML frontmatter to 35 articles missing it entirely - Completed frontmatter on 8 articles with missing fields Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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title, domain, category, tags, status, created, updated
| title | domain | category | tags | status | created | updated | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ventoy — Multi-Boot USB Tool | opensource | dev-tools |
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published | 2026-04-02 | 2026-04-02 |
Ventoy — Multi-Boot USB Tool
Ventoy turns a USB drive into a multi-boot device. Drop ISO files onto the drive and boot directly from them — no need to flash a new image every time you want to try a different distro or run a recovery tool.
What It Is
Ventoy creates a special partition layout on a USB drive. After the one-time install, you just copy ISO (or WIM, VHD, IMG) files to the drive. On boot, Ventoy presents a menu of every image on the drive and boots whichever one you pick.
No re-formatting. No Rufus. No balenaEtcher. Just drag and drop.
Installation
Linux
# Download the latest release
wget https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases/download/v1.1.05/ventoy-1.1.05-linux.tar.gz
# Extract
tar -xzf ventoy-1.1.05-linux.tar.gz
cd ventoy-1.1.05
# Install to USB drive (WARNING: this formats the drive)
sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdX
Replace /dev/sdX with your USB drive. Use lsblk to identify it — triple-check before running, this wipes the drive.
Windows
Download the Windows package from the Ventoy releases page, run Ventoy2Disk.exe, select your USB drive, and click Install.
Usage
After installation, the USB drive shows up as a regular FAT32/exFAT partition. Copy ISOs onto it:
# Copy ISOs to the drive
cp ~/Downloads/Fedora-43-x86_64.iso /mnt/ventoy/
cp ~/Downloads/ubuntu-24.04-desktop.iso /mnt/ventoy/
cp ~/Downloads/memtest86.iso /mnt/ventoy/
Boot from the USB. Ventoy's menu lists every ISO it finds. Select one and it boots directly.
Updating Ventoy
When a new version comes out, update without losing your ISOs:
# Update mode (-u) preserves existing files
sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -u /dev/sdX
Why It's Useful
- Distro testing: Keep 5-10 distro ISOs on one stick. Boot into any of them without reflashing.
- Recovery toolkit: Carry GParted, Clonezilla, memtest86, and a live Linux on a single drive.
- OS installation: One USB for every machine you need to set up.
- Persistence: Ventoy supports persistent storage for some distros, so live sessions can save data across reboots.
Gotchas & Notes
- Secure Boot: Ventoy supports Secure Boot but it requires enrolling a key on first boot. Follow the on-screen prompts.
- exFAT for large ISOs: The default FAT32 partition has a 4GB file size limit. Use exFAT if any of your ISOs exceed that (Windows ISOs often do). Ventoy supports both.
- UEFI vs Legacy: Ventoy handles both automatically. It detects the boot mode and presents the appropriate menu.
- Some ISOs don't work. Heavily customized or non-standard ISOs may fail to boot. Standard distro ISOs and common tools work reliably.