If you often create bootable USB drives using third-party software on Windows, you may need to format it first. However, you can use Ventoy2Disk, which is a free tool for create a bootable USB key without formatting. You can create a multi-boot USB stick using this free software. Let’s take a look at the features and options to get started.
Ventoy2Disk features and options
You won’t find many options features in this tool. However, it is doing its job well. Suppose you have a bootable USB stick from Ubuntu, but you want to create a bootable USB stick from Windows 10 – or you want to create a multiboot USB stick in Windows 10. At this point, you can use the tool Ventoy2Disk to get the job done without any problems.
Typically, users should format the USB drive to make it available for another ISO image of an operating system. The highlight of this software is that you don’t need to format the USB drive – whether you want to create a multi-boot drive with two, three or four ISO files. The second most important thing is that you have to complete the installation process once. Once the software is linked to your USB key, you can copy and paste the ISO file to make it a boot storage.
Before you start, make sure you have all the ISO files on your PC. Also, the file name or path must not contain spaces or non-ASCII characters.
Create a bootable USB drive without formatting
To create a bootable USB drive without formatting using Ventoy2Disk, follow these steps:
- Download Ventoy2Disk from the official website.
- Extract the file.
- Insert the USB stick.
- Open Ventoy2Disk.exe on PC.
- Choose the USB device.
- Click on the Install button.
- Copy and paste the ISO files to the USB stick.
- Restart the PC to go through the installation.
Once the download is complete, extract or decompress the file on your computer. Now insert the USB stick into your computer. After that, double-click the Ventoy2Disk.exe file to open the configuration window. It should look something like this
It should automatically detect the USB drive. If not, you can extend the Device drop-down list and select your USB drive accordingly. After that click on the Install to start the software installation process.
For your information, this is the only time that your USB key must be formatted. Therefore, it is essential to back up your data if it contains anything.
Once you have clicked on Install button, it displays a warning message and your permission to format the USB drive. After that, it takes a few seconds to complete the installation process. Once done, you should find a success message on your screen. After that, you can see two partitions – exFAT and FAT. You must copy and paste all ISO files to the exFAT partition, which must be named Ventoy.
Now you can go through the operating system installation process. To do this, insert the USB key into the desired computer and restart the PC. You will be greeted with the following screen-
You can choose an operating system from the list using the Up / Down key and select it by pressing the Enter button. After that, you can display the usual installation screen of the respective operating system.
If you like this tool, you can download it from official site. It supports most standard operating systems, including Windows 10/8/7, Ubuntu, Debian, etc. You can check the ISO tested on their website for a list of all supported operating systems.