Boot Multiple ISO from USB (MultiBoot

USB)
How to create a Multiboot USB Flash Drive that you can use to Boot Multiple ISO Files from
USB. Please note that you might need a 8GB-16GB or larger USB flash device to be able to
support every bootable ISO entry. I will update and add more Bootable ISO files to the list as I
find the time to test them. You can also contact me to submit working Bootable Linux ISO
menu.lst entries for inclusion.

MultiBoot USB Menu (Simply select an ISO to boot from USB)

Basic Essentials to create a Multi ISO Boot USB Flash Drive

 Fat32 Formatted Flash Drive (NOT Superfloppy Formatted)

 PC that can boot from USB-HDD or detects the USB as a HardDrive
 Windows XP/Vista/7 host to create the Bootable USB
 MultiBootISOs-USB-Creator.exe
 Your select ISO Files

How It Works: MultiBootISOs enables each user to create their own custom Multiboot UFD
containing only the Distributions they want. New Distributions can be added to your UFD each
time the tool is run.

Store your downloads in the ISOFILES Directory created where the tool is run. Supported
downloads stored there are auto-detected by the tool.
MultiBootISOs-2.1.4.9.exe – January 20, 2011 – Changelog

Updated to support clonezilla-live-20110113-maverick.iso.

01/17/11 Version 2.1.4.8: Added PCLinuxOS and Panda SafeCD.
01/10/11 Version 2.1.4.7: Updated to support Lucid Puppy 5.2, Gparted 0.7.1-5, Parted Magic
5.8. Added basic option to "Try an Unlisted ISO".

IMPORTANT NOTE: A Fat32 Format option has been removed (for now). Ensure that your
USB drive is fat32 formatted (with a partition) before running the tool on it, otherwise Syslinux
WILL fail and your drive WILL NOT Boot.

How to Boot Multiple ISO Files from USB

Download MultiBootISOs-2.1.4.9.exe

1. Run* MultiBootISOs-2.1.4.9.exe following the onscreen instructions

2. Run the tool again to Add More ISOs/Distributions to your Drive
3. Restart your PC setting it to boot from the USB device
4. Select the ISO you want to Boot from the Menu and enjoy!

That's all there is to it. You should now be booting your favorite ISO files from your Multi-Boot
USB device!

MultiBootISOs can create a UFD containing one or all of the following

Click to see the list of installable distributions

Known Issues:

PC must be able to detect and boot the Flash Drive as a HardDisk or USB-HDD . USB-ZIP boot
options won't work because, once handed over to grub, the flash drive will be improperly set to
(fd0), whereas the menu entries are to be found at (hd0,0).

Additional Notes:

You can also boot Ubuntu or an Ubuntu based remix with persistence by using our Casper-RW
Creator script to create a Casper-RW file on your USB device. Only "ONE Distro" can use
casper persistence
If you don't have a floppy drive and get fd0 errors while booting, simply add
floppy.allowed_drive_mask=0 to the kernel line for that menu entry. Although the best fix is to
disable floppy in BIOS.

To load Ophcrack tables when booted in this fashion, the tables folder needs to exist at the root
of the USB device. Example E:\tables\vista_free. Download Tables from the Official Ophcrack
site and unzip to your USB.

Boot Errors: While trying to run an ISO from USB, If you get a Boot error saying:

Error 60: File for drive emulation must be in one contiguous disk area

You'll need to defragment your ISO using one of the following tools:

contig -  Command line tool to defragment ISO files.

wincontig – GUI tool to defragment ISO files.

For information on how to try other ISO's, see the "CDROM emulation (virtualization) section"
in the official GRUB4DOS Readme file. Additionally, Here is another good third party guide
that explains how things work.

If you successfully boot from a Linux Based ISO that isn't listed (see full.menu.lst for examples),
let me know and I will add it to the list.

Alternately, Here is a Linux Based MultiBoot Tool created by another developer. Here is a
Manual Multiboot ISO method using Grub2 and Linux.

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Posted under: USB Creator Tools

Related Portable Linux Posts

 MultiSystem – Create a MultiBoot USB from Linux

 Boot Multiple ISO from USB via Grub2 using Linux
 Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3
 Portable Linux Categories