• stargazingpenguin@lemmy.zip
    91·
    6 months ago

    Check out Ventoy! Unless you need a single ISO on the drive, it’s just something you install to it and then copy and paste ISOs to the folder on it. No flashing needed, it runs them for you. I’ve got 128GB drives almost filled with every ISO I could possibly want.

        • ferret@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          I personally just set the index depth to 0 in the config so it only searches the root directory for bootable files

      • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        6 months ago

        Note that some devices aren’t able to correctly mount the second partition.

        I guess this is because the first partition is used to boot ventoy, while the second partition holds data and some devices (e.g. printers) won’t mount the second partition.

        PS: I nearly wasn’t able to hold a presentation because of this, luckily a second stick/phone/copy on web storage saved me, iirc.

        • ferret@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          This only ever really applies to devices without UIs or otherwise embedded OSs, and personally I wouldn’t trust a drive with more than a handful of files in such a device anyway.

    • Destide@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      I have a durable metal ventoy usb on my keys with portable apps basically a walking IT dept, I mean I am a solo IT/Dev and I’m pretty basic so…hmmm

      • stargazingpenguin@lemmy.zip
        21·
        6 months ago

        It still works for installing the OS though, at least in the case of Nix. I’ve not tried Guix so far, but I’ve installed NixOS on two machines in the past year using Ventoy.

          • stargazingpenguin@lemmy.zip
            1·
            6 months ago

            Interesting. I wonder if it’s an incompatible UEFI/BIOS? Both of the machines I put it on were fairly new, one was first boot on a server I built, the other was a recent laptop that I decided to run it on for a while.

  • crushyerbones@lemmy.world
    4·
    6 months ago

    Why is everyone suggesting ventoy and stuff and no one is telling you to just reformat drives you no longer need? Or are they all live OSs in use? Am I missing something?

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
    2·
    6 months ago

    I’ve not tried netboot yet but that might also be a cool option for people who like to install new ISOs often. Ventoy gang for life, tho

  • Pasta Dental@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    6 months ago

    I got a 128GB dual connector usb-c/usb-a drive, and installed ventoy on it. I have my normal files and for my ISOs I simply put them in the ventoy folder. It works really well.

    • morbidcactus@lemmy.ca
      1·
      6 months ago

      I have an nvme enclosure with a 256 gig drive in it, I think I partitioned a quarter of it for ventoy, rest is for regular storage. It’s really nice to have if I do family support, have any iso I need and any utility I might need on top of that. Is it overkill for my needs? Yeah, but it’s nice to have and I didn’t go for anything fancy, just a cheap crucial drive.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      6 months ago

      Yeah, look at image before title, wondered if it was a salt shaker and what language uses kalt for salt.

      Hrm, USB stick salt shaker…

  • mbirth@lemmy.mbirth.uk
    1·
    6 months ago

    It’s a shame these never took off. I’d love for my various USB drives to have displays that show their labels and maybe even contents.

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
      01·
      6 months ago

      That’d make it highly file system dependent with no way of updating the firmware. All these drives stopped working after the FAT32->ExFAT switch.