How to Use Multiple Operating System ISOs on a single USB Drive
#8 One Thumb drive to rule them all!
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Remember those good old days when we had to burn every software or OS onto a CD drive? They bring back some fond memories and some not-so-fond ones. An additional device, typically a DVD or CD reader, was required to read and process them as opposed to a USB, a simple plug-and-play. USBs eventually replaced Compact discs in the 2000s and CDs became obsolete. With the birth of cloud storage, USBs are now at a stage CDs were about two decades ago. If you have spare USBs collecting dust, don’t throw them out yet. It’s time to clean them and bring them back to their former glory! 🌟 There are several ways you can reuse old USB sticks to safeguard your data or have a PC on the go, in your wallet! I am planning to write more about them in my upcoming articles. Please subscribe so that you don’t miss those!
Gone are the days when you needed to have multiple USBs, each dedicated to an OS installation. There’s a free and open-source tool called Ventoy which now enables you to have multiple ISOs on it and just choose the one you want during the Boot installation screen.
Ventoy
With Ventoy, you don't need to format your thumb drive to create a bootable USB. You just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly. You can copy several files at a time and ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them during the installation process. You can even browse the files on local discs and boot them. Almost all of the operating systems are supported (Windows, WinPE, Linux, ChromeOS, Unix, VMware etc.). If you find the boot screen outdated, you can change that with several custom themes available online.
The installation process is pretty simple. You can search on YoutTube or Google to get the instructions. What do you use your thumb drives for? Do let me know in the comments below.
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