Ventoy: The Last Bootable USB Drive You’ll Ever Need

If you have a drawer full of USB drives labeled “Windows 10,” “Windows 11,” “Linux test,” “Recovery tools,” and my personal favorite, “No idea what this is, but I’m afraid to erase it”… congratulations. You’ve built yourself a tiny plastic landfill of confusion.

There’s a free tool called Ventoy that fixes that. You install it on one USB drive once, then just copy ISO files onto it like regular files. Windows installers, Linux, recovery tools, troubleshooting utilities. All on one drive. No reformatting it every time. No rebuilding it every time.

If you fix your own PCs, reinstall Windows, or you’re the poor soul the family calls when a printer blinks funny, you probably want one of these.

Prefer to watch instead of read? Here’s the full walkthrough — or skip it and keep reading below.

Why Ventoy Exists

Normally, making a bootable USB goes like this: download an ISO, open Rufus or the Media Creation Tool, pick the ISO, pick the drive, double-check the drive (because picking the wrong one is how family photos become a life lesson), write the image, and wait. Need something else next month? Wipe it and do it all again.

Ventoy changes that. Install it on the drive once. After that, copy a Windows ISO onto it. Copy a Linux ISO onto it. Copy recovery tools onto it. When you boot from the drive, Ventoy shows a menu. You pick what you want, and it boots. That’s the whole trick.

What You Can Put on It

• Windows 11 and Windows 10 install media
• Recovery, partition, and backup tools
• Linux Mint or Ubuntu, to test Linux or rescue files from a PC that won’t start
• Diagnostic utilities

It’s basically your “oh no” drive. Your “Windows broke again” drive.

What You Need

A decent USB drive, and bigger is better, since the whole point is holding several bootable files. I’d use at least 32GB, and I’d rather use 64GB or 128GB if you want multiple Windows and Linux ISOs plus recovery tools.

And use a good one. Not the free one from a conference in 2011 from a company that no longer exists. This is something you may depend on when a PC is broken. (The drive I link in the video is here on Amazon. That’s an affiliate link: if you buy through it, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

Step 1: Download Ventoy From the Real Source

Go to the official Ventoy website, ventoy.net, and download the Windows ZIP file. Don’t search “Ventoy download” and click the first giant green button you see. Boot tools are not where you play download roulette.

Step 2: Install Ventoy on the USB Drive

1. Extract the ZIP file.
2. Right-click Ventoy2Disk and choose Run as administrator.
3. Select the correct drive. I’ll say it again for the people already clicking: select the correct drive. Ventoy erases the drive it installs to, so copy anything important off it first.
4. Click Install. Ventoy warns you, then warns you again. Read both.

When it’s done, the USB drive shows up in Windows like a normal drive. Now copy your ISO files onto it, organized with clear names. Six months from now, when something breaks, you shouldn’t have to decode your own nonsense.

Step 3: Boot From It

Restart the computer and open its boot menu. Depending on the manufacturer, that’s usually F12, F11, F9, or Esc, because apparently every manufacturer decided standardization was for cowards. Choose the USB drive, Ventoy loads, and you pick the ISO you want from the menu.

(Windows also has its own recovery USB, and it’s worth making one too: How to Create a Recovery Drive.)

If It Won’t Boot: Secure Boot

This is where some people say, “I followed the steps and it didn’t work.” Ventoy can work with Secure Boot, but depending on the computer you may see extra prompts or a key enrollment step. Follow Ventoy’s own Secure Boot instructions first.

On some machines, you may need to temporarily turn Secure Boot off, boot what you need, and turn it back on afterward. I’m not telling you to disable security features permanently. Secure Boot exists for a reason. Change only what you need, and put things back when you’re done. And if your PC uses BitLocker or device encryption, have your recovery key handy before you change firmware settings.

Test It Before You Need It

Here’s what you don’t want: you build the drive, toss it in a drawer, and six months later, when Windows explodes, you discover it doesn’t boot.

• After you build it, boot from it on at least one PC.
• Make sure Ventoy loads and your Windows ISO actually starts.
• After copying big ISO files, wait for the copy to finish and safely eject the drive. With boot media, don’t just yank it.

The middle of a crisis is not when you want to find out your USB drive is bad, your ISO is corrupt, or your BIOS woke up and chose violence.

The Short Version

1. Use a good USB drive, 32GB or larger (64GB+ is better).
2. Download Ventoy only from ventoy.net.
3. Run Ventoy2Disk as administrator, select the correct drive, and install.
4. Copy ISO files onto it, with clear names.
5. Boot from it now, while nothing is broken, to make sure it works.

Stay grumpy.