We all have been in a situation where we wanted to have all our important files like multiple OS versions, portable apps, and even necessary drivers in one portable drive.
Find what tool to use and how to create a multiboot USB
Multiboot USB creators are great for installing multiple bootable operating systems on the same USB drive.
It’s a solution for power users who run a dual-boot configuration and don’t have a separate pen drive for each OS.
All multiboot USB creators on this list are free, with the exception of Sardu which also has a premium version. You can install not only various Windows editions but also Linux distributions.
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While USB flash drives offer that flexibility, installing multiple bootable OS in a flash drive is still a tricky task.
Fortunately, there is multiple freeware software that allows you to create a multiboot USB flash drive with a click of a button.
In this article, we take a look at the best software to create a multiboot USB flash drive to have an all-in-one USB boot drive ready with multiple operating systems in your pocket all the time.
What is the top software to create multiboot USB drives?
YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer)
- Price – Free
YUMI is one of the highly recommended multiboot utility, and it is also the lightest of the lot. The options on YUMI are straightforward. Furthermore, it is a portable application and hence doesn’t require any installation.
- What is the top software to create multiboot USB drives?
- YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer)
- MultibootUSB
- XBoot
- Sardu
- Conclusion
However, with YUMI you can only install one operating system at a time. So, to install multiple OS into your multiboot USB drive, you need to repeat the process again and again.
It has an intuitive user interface and supports both FAT32 and NTFS file systems. The software is useful for creating multiboot USB drives, and you can use it for disc cloning, installation of portable software, Live CD creation, etc.
Begin with downloading the YUMI software from the link given below. Run the software once the download is completed.
Insert the USB drive and select it in the YUMI window. Next, click the drop-down button in “Step 2:” and select the distribution / OS you want to install.
By default, YUMI does not format the drive before installing an operating system. However, you can select the NTFS or FAT32 Format system option from the right side as per your requirement.
If you don’t have the ISO file on your PC, select the Download Link option from the right-hand side and YUMI will display download links for the selected software.
Assuming you have the installation file ready, click the Browse button and select the ISO file to be installed.
Click the Create button to begin the installation process. Depending on the size, the process may take a few minutes to complete.
⇒ Download YUMI
MultibootUSB
MultibootUSB is a free cross-platform software that allows you to create a multiboot USB flash drive on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
MultibootUSB has both portable as well as installable versions and can be downloaded from the official website. You can find the download link below.
It works with Linux distributions only, so you won’t be able to install anything other than Linux Distro. The main purpose of the tool is to help the user boot from a multiboot USB drive on any Linux computer.
So, if you try to install Linux from a multiboot USB drive created using MultibootUSB and fail, the author says he can’t help with the problem as booting from the USB drive is the main function of this software.
Nonetheless, it worked perfectly fine in our testing, so usability is not an issue.
To create a multiboot USB drive, launch MultibootUSB. Insert your USB drive into your PC and select it under the “Select USB disk” option. The USB drive details are displayed right below the disk option, so read it carefully before proceeding.
Click the Browse button to select the Linux Distro that you want to install. Click the Install Distro button to begin the installation. Repeat the process to install another Linux distro on the same drive.
MultibootUSB, although limited to Linux Distro, is a useful utility and does the core job of creating a multiboot USB drive on any computer platform.
⇒ Download MultibootUSB
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XBoot
XBoot is yet another easy-to-use software for Windows that allows you to create a multiboot USB flash drive.
XBoot too supports both FAT32 and NFTS file formats; however, it recommends Fat32 during installation by default.
Using XBoot is relatively easy. Download the executable file from the link below and launch the program.
Now drag and drop the ISO file you want to install onto the main window. Next, click Create USB button.
First, select your USB drive from the drop-down menu. Next, select Bootloader type. If the USB supports FAT32 then select Syslinux and for NTFS select Grubdos.
Click OK to proceed with the installation. The installation process should take a few minutes to complete.
⇒ Download XBoot
Sardu
- Price – Free / Premium
Sardu is another multiboot USB drive creator for Windows. It is available in two versions free and premium. The premium version comes with some advanced features including remote automatic update, links to download ISO, the ability to create multiple USB installers with different versions of Windows, and more.
However, the free version is fully capable of creating a multiboot USB drive on a Windows computer and installing both Linux and Windows OS on the USB drive.
Sardu only supports the FAT32 file system. So, if you have an NTFS formatted USB drive, make sure you reformat it to FAT32. Use this FAT32 format software to change the file system
To create a multiboot USB drive using Sardu, download and launch the software from the below link.
Next, insert any USB drive which is formatted for the FAT32 file system. Once done, select the USB drive from the window.
From the left side, you can select and install various types of utilities apart from Linux and Windows OS. You can install Antivirus, Utility tools, Linux distro, Windows OS, and other extras.
Note that some features are only available for Pro users. Once you have selected the OS to install, right-click on the selected OS and select Search.
Navigate to your local drive where the ISO is located or download using the Sardu tool itself.
Click the “Create Sardu USB” icon to begin the installation process. You can see the installation progress in the same window.
⇒ Download Sardu
Conclusion
All of this multiboot USB drive software allows you to create multiple instances of the bootable OS on a single USB drive. You can also use your external HDD or SDD for this task, although some workaround might be required to get it working successfully.
Multiboot USB drives are not just for installing operating systems but can also be used to create a rescue USB drive to repair your system in case of system failure.
While you can use any bootable USB creator software, Multiboot creators provide the flexibility of adding all kinds of tools on a single USB drive.
Some of the important tools you can have in a multiboot USB drive include an antivirus program, partition manager, Linux, and Windows OS, network diagnosis tools and rescue disk, etc.
Have you tried any other multiboot USB creator that is not mentioned in this list? Do let us know in the comments below.
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