USB flash drives or pen drives have become an essential part of our computer accessories. This is due to its low price and its wide variety of available sizes. They are ideal for storing all kinds of data and taking them from one place to another, but they can also be used to store operating systems and install them on any computer. This is something that we can do with a useful tool, called Ventoy , which we will talk about below.
Ventoy is a free, lightweight and portable program that has a very clear and concise mission. It offers us the possibility to convert any USB flash drive into a multiboot system . This means that we can store different operating systems, depending on the storage of our pendrive and that we can use to install them on any computer. For this, it offers compatibility with 475 operating systems , including Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, as well as the most popular Linux distributions.
This tool is responsible for creating bootable USB drives from ISO files. Therefore, if we want to reinstall our operating system through a pendrive, we will have a great advantage, since we will not need to format our hard drive for it. It will only be necessary to insert the USB memory and restart our PC. Ventoy has support for ISO, WIM, IMG and EFI formats , as well as support for Legacy + UEFI and is compatible with disk images larger than 4 GB.
Although we can find a good number of tools that create a bootable USB, Ventoy has a peculiarity. It differs in that it is not dependent on the operating system kernel , nor does it need to access hardware storage media for the font. This program saves all the information in memory for execution before starting. Therefore, the operating system can determine that the data is booted from a virtual disk, allowing it to find the source media required for the operation and continue booting.
Ventoy, create your multi-boot system quickly
To start using Ventoy, simply download its zip file and unzip it. In the resulting folder we must execute the file Ventoy2Disk.exe once we have connected our pendrive to the computer. Its very simple main menu will appear with the basic options we need to create our multi-boot flash memory. In the “Language” tab we can select Spanish as the language, to translate the few texts that appear on its interface, although not in the most correct way possible.
From the “Option” menu we can find some options that we can configure before creating our boot pendrive. In the “Partition style” section we can reserve some space on our unit so that it can be used by us once the boot system is created. This is something that will come in handy if we have a large capacity pendrive and we do not want to use all the available storage to save operating systems. From the “Partition style” section we can select the MBR or GPT file format. We can also activate the secure boot support (Secure Boot).
Prepare and format the pendrive to insert the images
If we have a pendrive connected, we will see how our device appears in the main menu, showing the unit where it is, the size, brand and transmission speed. For example, in this case a Kingston DataTraveler 32GB 2.0 pendrive appears in drive E. Then, we only have to click on “Install”, so that the tool is in charge of formatting and preparing the unit . To do this, it previously performs a double security check, informing us that all data will be erased. Once finished, a sign will appear informing us that Ventoy has been correctly installed in our unit. Now we just have to drag disk images to the new unit or use copy and paste.
Once we have copied the disk images of the systems that we want to include, it will be enough to start the computer from the USB where we have installed. Next, the program will run and a menu will appear where we can select the operating system we want to install . The time for installation will depend on each operating system and the speed of our pendrive.
Download Ventoy for free
Ventoy is a free and open source application that stands out for its ease of use, being possible to run from Windows or Linux systems and that we can download from GitHub.The application is 7.3 MB in size and stands out for being portable, which allows us to be able to use it on any computer without installation. It is compatible with Windows 7, 8 and 10 in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Its latest version available so far is 1.0.29 , released last December, so it has good support from its developers.
Alternatives to Ventoy
If we are looking for a program that allows us to create a boot disk with different operating systems, we propose a couple of alternatives to Ventoy to take into account.
Yumi
It is a very functional and lightweight program that allows us to quickly create a boot disk in which we can include different operating systems. The whole process is quick and easy so it can be used by any type of user and take advantage of all its options. We can include both Windows and Linux bootable ISO files. Additionally, you can introduce diagnostic or disk cloning boots. We can download Yumi, for free, from this web page.
Xboot
We are facing a tool designed to create ISO images with boot discs or prepare a pendrive as a boot disc. To facilitate our work, it includes a complete list with different web addresses of Linux operating systems and tools that we can use to create our boot disk. In addition, you have the possibility to test the USB or ISO image that we have created in a virtualization window to verify that everything works correctly. Xboot is a free program that we can download from this link .