Multiboot USB drive for multiple OSes and tools

October 29, 2016 - Windows

This is the successfull procedure I adopted to create my multiboot USB drive with Ubuntu linux and Windows 10 (but you can put every bootable .iso or .zip file you want).

I have also tried SARDU and YUMI, but I couldn’t get them to work with UEFI.

Unfortunately the entire procedure only works on a Windows OS, if someone knows a way to do the same on linux just drop a comment line.

Create multiboot USB

  1. Download the OSes and tools that you want to put on your USB drive as .iso or .zip files
  2. Download and extract tools from Easy2Boot official website:
    • E2B - formats and installs Easy2Boot on the USB drive
    • MPI Tool Pack (MakePartImage) - converts .iso and .zip files to .imgPTN
  3. Install Easy2Boot on a USB drive - go to extracted E2B tool
    1. insert a USB drive
    2. execute as admin MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd
    3. select the correct USB drive
    4. choose NTFS
    5. choose preferred keyboard layout
    6. press “Enter” to all the subsequent requests
    7. Check: at the end of the procedure the window becomes green, USB drive has been formatted and E2B is installed on the USB drive
  4. Convert .iso and .zip files to .imgPTN - go to extracted MPI Tool Pack (MakePartImage) tool
    1. install ImDisk from ImDisk\imdiskinst.exe
    2. execute CreateDesktopShortcuts.cmd
    3. For each downloaded .iso and .zip
      1. Drag .iso or .zip to the newly created desktop shortcut MPI_FAT32
      2. press “Enter”
      3. Check: in the same folder of your .iso or .zip it should have created the .imgPTN file
  5. Move created .imgPTN files to \_ISO\MAINMENU of your USB drive
  6. Execute MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd from your USB drive

If you want to later add any other .iso or .zip, just start from step 4 (of course you can also delete any .imgPTN file you don’t want anymore).

Use multiboot USB

Now that you have prepared your E2B drive, execute SWITCH_E2B.exe from your E2B drive in \_ISO folder and double click on the OS or tool that you wish to boot with. Next time you boot your computer you will be able to boot the selected OS or tool chosen.

To get back and choose another OS or tool to boot, go to e2b folder, execute SWITCH_E2B.exe and choose “Restore E2B partitions”.

Sources

OSstartup diskUSB
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