Ventoy - Easy USB multiboot for ISO files (UEFI, too!)

Discussion in 'Application Software' started by Atari800XL, May 1, 2020.

  1. Mr.X

    Mr.X MDL Guru

    Jul 14, 2013
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    Is Ventoy compatible with Strelec's Winpe?
    There's no program in the Start Menu
     
  2. OldMX

    OldMX MDL Addicted

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    Does this tool support HP secure boot, we need to start imaging computers with accenture and its a paint in the rear to have several USB pendrives based on the laptop model.
     
  3. Mr.X

    Mr.X MDL Guru

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    Perhaps the image files you're gonna get could outnumber a pendrive size even deploying with Ventoy. An external storage drive will work with Ventoy and you can create lots of images in it.
     
  4. verndog

    verndog MDL Member

    May 3, 2010
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    Yes. I have it on there now. It works well, but I prefer having it on its own USB flash drive.
    What problem with Start menu?
     
  5. OldMX

    OldMX MDL Addicted

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    Not really, each mage is about 8gb, it smore like a PE stuff and everything else is downloaded from MS.
     
  6. Supern00b

    Supern00b MDL Addicted

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    Once you understand Sergei and the way he does things (hexing Windows files for example) you'll know that you can move the folders
    SSTR\driverpacks
    SSTR\MInst
    out of the bootable image and put this SSTR folder in the root of any drive.
    At PE startup the folders will be found and program shortcuts created.

    Cheers.
     
  7. Mr.X

    Mr.X MDL Guru

    Jul 14, 2013
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    Then Strelecs iso is not compatible with Ventoy if I don't extract those two folders, am I correct?
    If so then why is the purpose of dropping Strelecs iso into a Ventoy drive?
     
  8. Supern00b

    Supern00b MDL Addicted

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    You are correct, those were my findings when trying to boot Strelec. Not a big deal though.
    It's even possible to make a 1GB G4D bootable USB with Strelec's PE slimmed down and put the rest of the ISO on another bigger drive.

    The purpose is to be able to boot not only Strelec's PE, but also other images.
     
  9. Mr.X

    Mr.X MDL Guru

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    Yes yes, you're right. Dumb me.
    Rest of the iso meaning those two folders
    SSTR\driverpacks
    SSTR\MInst
    Right?
    See what @Supern00b have explained?
    You didn't :mad: :p
    Care to elaborate please?
    I did a quick search but found nothing...
     
  10. Supern00b

    Supern00b MDL Addicted

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    #232 Supern00b, Sep 10, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2021
    G4D = Grub4Dos, but I can understand that the abbreviation was a Tinybit confusing :).

    Yes, I mean those two folders, but you can play a bit with the contents.
    The most important thing is to have the wims inside the bootable device. The rest, drivers and apps can be put elsewhere.
    You can make a test to see how far you can trim it. but for the most part, just doing the two folders is simple and straight forward.

    Edit: For the sake of completeness…I just add a bit of information about my attempts to boot Strelec:
    Just in case you wanted to rip the wim's from Strelec's ISO and boot them from G4D
    with wimboot...
    Strelec thought of that and he changed some things so that the wim's cannot be independently
    booted.

    Wimboot creates a virtual file structure with folders like \boot \sources etc. where Strelec's wims
    are in \SSTR folder.
    Strelec changed the BCD to reflect this path structure, and also uses a patched version of bootmgr.

    Cheers.
     
  11. verndog

    verndog MDL Member

    May 3, 2010
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    #233 verndog, Sep 10, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2021
    @Supern00b, I played around with those wim's. It didn't work as expected. There are several wim's. I was going to open them with PowerISO or some other program to see exactly what was in them. I removed one wim I thought wouldn't impact the rest of the program, but it did. I was going to investigate why with Poweriso, but never got around to it. At the time, I needed to reduce its size for an ISO flash. Ventoy worked well, so I just left the wim's alone. At some point I want to see how he creates his wim's. Very interesting program he's created.
     
  12. Supern00b

    Supern00b MDL Addicted

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    Actually, the wims are just customized PE images.
    You can mount them with DISM.
    But the PE's are fine, the issue is booting them with wimboot or Ventoy for that matter.

    Cheers.
     
  13. verndog

    verndog MDL Member

    May 3, 2010
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    Ventoy works well booting and using Sergei. In fact Ventoy boots Sergei faster than my iso-flash install of Sergei, and my Ventoy is also on a iso-flash drive. The problem I have with Ventoy, is the display resolution. Its very low, and the tool to change it , doesn't work.
    I find Ventoy has this issue on many iso's. I posted on his web page, but the suggestion didn't work either.
     
  14. Supern00b

    Supern00b MDL Addicted

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    You mean the menu?
    I actually like it as basic as it can get, it's faster.
    The graphical interface is slower, I like the old plain text menu better. It loads better on old systems.
    But that's just personal preference.

    Cheers.
     
  15. verndog

    verndog MDL Member

    May 3, 2010
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    Not the menu, but booting the Winpe to the start of Sergei is much faster. Bit the resolution on the iso-flash is much higher.
    There's something with Ventoy's that doesn't allow higher resolution. I haven't figured out where the monitor resolution gets interpreted. I thought it was inside WinPE, but no.