Windows Boot disk and other boot disks...

Method · 2025-04-21T13:24:18-0400

tecknot said:
Now repeat the steps to create and format by right clicking on the remaining unallocated space (in black) on the USB drive (steps 3 and 4 above):

Thank you for the info here. Im a visual learner so seeing through the GUI helps a lot (for me personally).

In the final step above (and the sizes dont matter?) you have I: as an NTFS drive, which I think you said would be the file system for me to store data on?

If the remaining unallocated space is the partition for ventoy to be put on is there a size limit to that partition for ventoy? Should I format it and if so how - NTFS? FAT32? Silly question I suppose, but how does ventoy know which of the 2 partitions to install on? Presume there is an opportunity to select it?

tecknot · 2025-04-21T14:46:17-0400

Method said:
Thank you for the info here. Im a visual learner so seeing through the GUI helps a lot (for me personally).

In the final step above (and the sizes dont matter?) you have I: as an NTFS drive, which I think you said would be the file system for me to store data on?

If the remaining unallocated space is the partition for ventoy to be put on is there a size limit to that partition for ventoy? Should I format it and if so how - NTFS? FAT32? Silly question I suppose, but how does ventoy know which of the 2 partitions to install on? Presume there is an opportunity to select it?

Hi Methy,

Gee, I don't really know because I don't use and am not familiar with Ventoy. Just haven't gotten to it yet. Perhaps, @spapakons can address your questions from here. Sorry.

Kind regards,

tecknot

tecknot · 2025-04-21T15:03:13-0400

Hi Methy,

Ok, from what I just read, I would suggest making a new partition just for Ventoy. I am not sure what size to make the new partition since I don't know the size of Ventoy when it's installed. Personally, I probably would install it on my system drive (the one where Windows is installed) and use it as an application. Again, I am not familiar with Ventoy, but it is a plug-in so it probably starts automatically when inserting a USB with an ISO on it. I don't know.

Kind regards,

tecknot

spapakons · 2025-04-21T15:43:31-0400

I think Ventoy works best on the first partition.

Spunk · 2025-04-21T15:46:58-0400

Does this help?

How to use Ventoy to create bootable USB on Windows 11, 10 (2025) - Pureinfotech

To create a bootable USB for Windows 11 and 10, open Ventoy, choose flash drive, click Install, drop the ISO files. Here's how.

pureinfotech.com

spapakons · 2025-04-21T15:51:18-0400

Just a little detail, when you install Ventoy on a USB flash drive it erases all data, so make sure you copy everything on your desktop before installing, then copy them back to the USB flash drive. Once installed you can add/remove ISO images without affecting existing data.

SIW2 · 2025-04-21T15:58:53-0400

Method said:
I might have perhaps not quite given the right impression of what Im wanting to do.

I want a big USB drive to be able to perform multiple tasks...act as a W11 boot/install disk, act as a Macrium revovery disk and also act as a storage drive.....so somehow have 3 partitions on it which I can choose which it uses/ sees?

Am I asking too much here?

One simple way is ventoy the usb stick.

Then you can copy almost any iso file onto it and select from the ventoy menu.

It can also boot .wim files if you put the ventoy_wimboot.img into a folder named ventoy on the main partition

https://github.com/ventoy/wimiso/releases/download/v1.0/ventoy_wimboot.img

Ventoy

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk again and again, you just need to copy the iso file to the USB drive and boot it.

www.ventoy.net

how should I format the drive before putting ventoy on it?

Ventoy will partition and format the usb stick for you.

I use it often, It is very handy for testing various winpe things I make

Very easy. Run Ventoy2Disk.exe Point it at the usb stick and off it goes

It creates 32mb fat16 and the rest is the main exfat partition

Optionally, on the main partition create a folder called ventoy and put the ventoy_wimboot.img into it.

Then just copy any bootable .iso files and bootable .wim files onto the main partition

No youtube videos needed, it is obvious

Method · 2025-04-21T16:12:37-0400

I really feel like Im missing something here.

I pointed Ventoy at my USB and this was the 'successful' result was as below:

Which looks OK, but has some problems.

Firstly, it seems to have taken the whole of my USB drive (bar the 32 MB FAT section) for itself and didnt give me any option to have a partition for my own data (the stuff I want to keep which is nothing to do with the ISOs and booting them).

I then thought I must have done something wrong and should have created my own partitions first (and perhaps I should have), so I deleted the 476.91GB volume no problem and that became unallocated space and then I went to delete the 32Mb FAT volume and everything is greyed out in Disk Management and I cannot delete it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Methy

Method · 2025-04-21T16:18:23-0400

Just for interest, I took that 476.91 Gb of space, deleted the volume and created 2 simple volumed within it Drive E (400Gb) and Drive F (76Gb).

Then thinking I could just install ventoy on the 76Gb partition. However Ventoy just sees an SSD with E: and F: on it and turns it back into the above image, effectively deleting both E: and F: and windows just sees a 476Gb E: once more with the 32 Mb FAT at the end.

How do I get my data drive?

gunrunnerjohn · 2025-04-21T17:10:24-0400

Method said:
I really feel like Im missing something here.

I pointed Ventoy at my USB and this was the 'successful' result was as below:

View attachment 131802

Which looks OK, but has some problems.

Firstly, it seems to have taken the whole of my USB drive (bar the 32 MB FAT section) for itself and didnt give me any option to have a partition for my own data (the stuff I want to keep which is nothing to do with the ISOs and booting them).

I then thought I must have done something wrong and should have created my own partitions first (and perhaps I should have), so I deleted the 476.91GB volume no problem and that became unallocated space and then I went to delete the 32Mb FAT volume and everything is greyed out in Disk Management and I cannot delete it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Methy

I hate to suggest the obvious, but it appears that the 476GB empty partition is where you put your ISO's. Assign it a drive letter and copy away.

Berton · 2025-04-21T17:20:09-0400

As to a question about Windows accessing a drive larger than 32GB the answer is Yes but Windows can only Partition and Format at a maximum of 32GB. However Windows can read larger drives formatted by other means larger than 32GB, some USB Thumb drives come factory-formatted up to 256GB, have a few Lexar and SanDisk at 32GB, 64GB and128GB plus an HP at 256GB. For a demonstration to a client I created 9 x 100GB partitions on a 1TB drive and formatted all to FAT32 [had a small unallocated space left over] using GPARTED, an open-source partition editor.

Method · 2025-04-21T17:25:50-0400

gunrunnerjohn said:
I hate to suggest the obvious, but it appears that the 476GB empty partition is where you put your ISO's. Assign it a drive letter and copy away.

Sorry, the picture isnt quite up top date. Ventory already assigns it a drive letter.

However, I am still really unclear - i dont want to use the Ventoy E: (476Gb) partition for my data. I just wanted to put ISOs there and I dont need more than 30-60Gb for that. Im guessing you were suggesting I just create a data folder on that drive? (which isnt what I want to do). I wanted 2 partitions - the ventoy partition for isos and a separate data partition.

Perhaps Im still misunderstanding and / or asking for too much.

Methy

SIW2 · 2025-04-21T18:35:54-0400

didnt give me any option to have a partition for my own data (the stuff I want to keep which is nothing to do with the ISOs and booting them).

You can put anything you want on the exfat partition. Ventoy will ignore it. I have lots of stuff on mine. That is where I keep all the programs my fancy winpe links to.

If you want it to look neat you could create a folder called something like ISOFILES then put yor isos in it. And another called something like WIMFILES and put your wim files in there.

Ventoy will stil find them if they are in a folder.

And/or you can probably shrink the exfat partition from the right using a 3rd party partition manager after ventoy has created and formatted. Then create something else from the resultant unallocated space it. But I havent bothered to try

SIW2 · 2025-04-21T18:56:54-0400

I have just cobbled together a simple winpe in a couple of minutes, here's a few screenies . Lots of fun

gunrunnerjohn · 2025-04-21T19:14:48-0400

Method said:
Sorry, the picture isnt quite up top date. Ventory already assigns it a drive letter.

View attachment 131817

However, I am still really unclear - i dont want to use the Ventoy E: (476Gb) partition for my data. I just wanted to put ISOs there and I dont need more than 30-60Gb for that. Im guessing you were suggesting I just create a data folder on that drive? (which isnt what I want to do). I wanted 2 partitions - the ventoy partition for isos and a separate data partition.

Perhaps Im still misunderstanding and / or asking for too much.

Methy

The E: partition is WHERE you put the ISO files, it's totally empty? I don't understand what the confusion is.

Method · 2025-04-21T20:05:55-0400

gunrunnerjohn said:
The E: partition is WHERE you put the ISO files, it's totally empty? I don't understand what the confusion is.

I think the confusion is that you think I am asking about where to put the ISO files. Im not confused about that. Its where both you say they should go, where Ventoy say they should go and many other respondents to this thread say they should go.

What I was asking is where I can store my OTHER (non-ISO related) data. I have a massive USB drive. I dont want to uses a small fraction of it for booting ISOs, I want the vast majority of it available for general data (games, files, pictures, videos etc) and still be able to boot ISOs which I have thrown on to Ventoy.

@SIW2 answered my question - which is that general data can also be stored on the exFAT drive. So I have created a Data folder on there and an ISO folder (which has subfolders) and Ventoy just searcheds for ISOs and displays them all.

Method · 2025-04-21T20:07:24-0400

SIW2 said:
I have just cobbled together a simple winpe in a couple of minutes, here's a few screenies . Lots of fun

You and I have very different ideas of fun. Im just surviving here....you are doing stuff I dont even begin to understand.

One day this might make sense to me!

gunrunnerjohn · 2025-04-21T21:23:23-0400

I guess the question has been answered.

hsehestedt · 2025-04-21T23:24:24-0400

Method said:
What I was asking is where I can store my OTHER (non-ISO related) data.

There are a lot of strategies that you could use, but my personal favorite is to have a separate partition for all my other data. That way I can also protect it with BitLocker, because thumb drives do have a tendency to go missing

.

I don't use Ventoy, I use something else, but here is how I organize my 1TB and 2TB UFDs (USB Flash Drives):

NOTE: This is just my configuration, but the whole point is that you can configure your drive however you want with as many partitions as you like.

First 2 partitions are used to support all the ISO images I might want to boot:

Fat32 Partition, 2.5 GB
NTFS Partition, 200 GB

Next, I have a BitLocker protected partition that contains all my personal software, documents, personal media, etc. Basically my entire digital life.

NTFS Partition, 500 GB

Finally, I have a final unprotected partition good for sharing data with other people.

NTFS Partition, all remaining space on drive

spapakons · 2025-04-22T00:42:41-0400

Method said:
Just for interest, I took that 476.91 Gb of space, deleted the volume and created 2 simple volumed within it Drive E (400Gb) and Drive F (76Gb).

Then thinking I could just install ventoy on the 76Gb partition. However Ventoy just sees an SSD with E: and F: on it and turns it back into the above image, effectively deleting both E: and F: and windows just sees a 476Gb E: once more with the 32 Mb FAT at the end.

How do I get my data drive?

Well usually you use the whole drive. However, in Disk Manager right-click on the large partition and select Shrink to make it smaller. Then on the unallocated part (after shrinking), you can create as many partitions as they fit.

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