Looking for recommendations for a versatile USB stick with Ventoy. I’m trying to create the “perfect, all-in-all” USB stick using Ventoy to store various ISOs and rescue tools. So far, I have the following ISOs:
Arch
OpenSuse TW
NixOS
Bazzite + AuroraDX
Win10 ISO
Clonezilla
I’m looking for suggestions on additional ISOs or tools that are compatible with Ventoy. What do you recommend adding to make my USB stick to make it more useful?
I work in a PC repair shop and I run my tool stick on this way. By the way, you can just put a folder in your Ventoy and store non-iso files so you can have portable apps and so on.
Acronis (can clone to reduced size drives unlike clonezilla which can only clone to equal or bigger)
MemTest86 & MemTest86+ (+ is the FOSS one. Recommend both because sometimes one won’t work)
Don’t forget that you can put other stuff in a Ventoy, not just .isos. I have shitlods of utilities in a folder beside all the .isos.
Tons more but I just woke up for work. I will make this list much longer when I get there of I can remember to
Edit: ADHD did ADHD things. Here’s some more stuff. A lot of it is Windows-centric because that’s what we specialize in.
ISOs:
PC Unlocker (Windows password remover, paid)
Gandalf’s Windows Preboot (similar to Hirans, but modern. Paid.)
Utilities:
CrystalDiskInfo (SMART checks and more on SSDs)
CrystalDiskMark (SSD benchmark)
FastCopy (Windows copy utility. Free)
HDTunePro (v5.00 specifically. After this, license binds to a single machine. HDD SMART checks, benchmark, secure erase, sector scans, and more.)
OCCT (CPU, GPU, Memory, PSU, and other checks and stress tests. Top-tier tool.)
F6 Drivers (drivers for NVMe detection on some laptops)
Spacesniffer (visual representation of disk utilization. Similar to WinDirStat, but looks nicer/runs quicker imo. Free.)
Do yourself a favor and skip the USB drive - they are ridiculously slow compared to a compact external SSD. I found a cheap m.2 enclosure on Amazon and put an old SSD in it and the speed difference is breathtaking.
My SSD has a bunch of Linux distros grouped into folders along with Windows 10 & 11, every macOS from 10.13 to present, along with Rescuezilla, Hiren’s and a few others I can’t remember at the moment.
Rescuezilla was my #1 go-to during my days of distro hopping. Makes it super easy to try out a distro on bare metal instead of a VM.
I keep an iodd mini with all the current and past repair isos. Then I have a folder.i keep the tooling income.upmwoth for various repair or automation stuff. I got a batch script (need to move to winger) to auto install all my standard day one software. On mobile otherwise I would pull up the list and throw it in here. If you are curious let me know and I’ll reply with the list when I get time.
What’s on my USB stick you ask… A bunch of random shit I haven’t touched for 8 years so I have no idea what it is and it’s probably outdated, but I’d be damned if that usb stick is not In my keychain because “I might need it one day”
I don’t keep a Swiss army knife set of distros anymore. I put tumbleweed on a USB. It’s rolling so I update it when I plug it in, then do what I need to do.
I used to have a USB with Ubuntu LTS and whatever the newest Ubuntu was. Then another would get something else that I needed/wanted. I always ended up wiping the drive and adding the newest release every single time. I was always out of date by the time I needed one of them for boot repair or something. This was also a time when persistence… Wasn’t very persistent. With tumbleweed I can install whatever I need and it’s there next time. I’m sure you can do the same with any other rolling release, but tumbleweed is in my opinion on par stability-wise with incremental distros. It’s my first grab whenever I need to check a PC. If I need another distro or boot USB, I can make it from this one with a second USB. I suppose the only thing I can’t do is make a bootable USB if the computer I’m on can’t access the Internet
to be fair, it’s more of a gimmick when using it in your home. I have a notebook that i use to test out new distros on and i can hook it up to my LAN and quickly install something without whipping out the USB stick.
Also the mini gaming pc hooked to my TV is a victim of being reinstalled every couple months after i tinker around too much.
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I work in a PC repair shop and I run my tool stick on this way. By the way, you can just put a folder in your Ventoy and store non-iso files so you can have portable apps and so on.
Edit: ADHD did ADHD things. Here’s some more stuff. A lot of it is Windows-centric because that’s what we specialize in. ISOs:
Utilities:
Arch Linu, Kubuntu, Supergrub, Tails, Kali, Windows
Ventoy
Do yourself a favor and skip the USB drive - they are ridiculously slow compared to a compact external SSD. I found a cheap m.2 enclosure on Amazon and put an old SSD in it and the speed difference is breathtaking.
My SSD has a bunch of Linux distros grouped into folders along with Windows 10 & 11, every macOS from 10.13 to present, along with Rescuezilla, Hiren’s and a few others I can’t remember at the moment.
Rescuezilla was my #1 go-to during my days of distro hopping. Makes it super easy to try out a distro on bare metal instead of a VM.
How do you select which one to boot?
I use Ventoy to boot everything but macOS. Those installers need their own partitions on the SSD.
Check out ventoy
Win10 LTSC, Win 11 LTSC, Win 7 MiniOS ISOs, Linux Mint Cinnamon, Linux Mint XFCE and Pop!_OS.
Does anyone else have/use Foxclone?
I keep an iodd mini with all the current and past repair isos. Then I have a folder.i keep the tooling income.upmwoth for various repair or automation stuff. I got a batch script (need to move to winger) to auto install all my standard day one software. On mobile otherwise I would pull up the list and throw it in here. If you are curious let me know and I’ll reply with the list when I get time.
What’s on my USB stick you ask… A bunch of random shit I haven’t touched for 8 years so I have no idea what it is and it’s probably outdated, but I’d be damned if that usb stick is not In my keychain because “I might need it one day”
I don’t keep a Swiss army knife set of distros anymore. I put tumbleweed on a USB. It’s rolling so I update it when I plug it in, then do what I need to do.
I used to have a USB with Ubuntu LTS and whatever the newest Ubuntu was. Then another would get something else that I needed/wanted. I always ended up wiping the drive and adding the newest release every single time. I was always out of date by the time I needed one of them for boot repair or something. This was also a time when persistence… Wasn’t very persistent. With tumbleweed I can install whatever I need and it’s there next time. I’m sure you can do the same with any other rolling release, but tumbleweed is in my opinion on par stability-wise with incremental distros. It’s my first grab whenever I need to check a PC. If I need another distro or boot USB, I can make it from this one with a second USB. I suppose the only thing I can’t do is make a bootable USB if the computer I’m on can’t access the Internet
Test out that Nix, Mine refused to let me install from it when I just shoved their iso in Ventoy.
Someone got a hackintosh running from ventoy on specific hardware
GParted
Inside Ventoy: SystemRescue, Clonezilla, Debian netinstall, Ubuntu netinstall, Tails, GParted live, FreeBSD bootonly, Supergrub 2, Windows Server 2019 evaluation, Windows 11 22H2.
Looking at my Ventoy stick i have multiple folders for different OS:
Arch_Based:
Debian_Based:
Fedora_Based:
GamingBox
ServerOS:
Windows:
Tools:
Thanks for sharing! What size is your usb-stick?
It’s a 64GB stick and i manually keep it in sync with my netbootxyz instance
Ohhh I’ve meant to try out netbootxyz for a while now, thanks for the reminder!
you’re welcome!
to be fair, it’s more of a gimmick when using it in your home. I have a notebook that i use to test out new distros on and i can hook it up to my LAN and quickly install something without whipping out the USB stick.
Also the mini gaming pc hooked to my TV is a victim of being reinstalled every couple months after i tinker around too much.
Ventoy with Arch and Rescue bootable images. And a portable cross platform encryption tool just in case.
Can you give us some names? Sounds intriguing
Rescue image: SystemRescue
Portable Encryption Tool: Picocrypt