Creating a multiboot USB flash

#usb #linux #windows #winpe

Multiboot USB Flash Drive

Universal multiboot USB flash drive with support for Windows, Linux, WinPE and UEFI/Legacy BIOS.

Quick start

graph LR;
Format[Format] --> Boot[MBR/PBR]
Boot --> Files[USB-Files]
Files --> ISO[ISO]
ISO --> Menu[menu.lst]

Quick Start
Features
Supported Images
How to Make the USB Flash Drive Bootable
Preparing a Windows ISO Image
WinContig — Analysis and Defragmentation
Themes

Features

BIOS/UEFI
Windows ISO
Linux ISO
WinPE/LiveCD
Themes
Multiple ISOs on a single USB drive

Supported ISOs

Windows 10 / 11
Macrium Reflect
WinPE / LiveCD environments
Arch Linux
Kali Linux
CachyOS
Debian-based distributions
Most modern Linux distributions

How to make the USB flash drive bootable

Installing the bootloader

[!IMPORTANT]
The USB flash drive must be formatted as one partition.

Select a File System

FAT32/NTFS→ Choose the file system that best suits your needs.

[!IMPORTANT]
FAT32 → does not support files larger than 4 GB

Activate the Partition

Open Bootice and select your USB drive.

Formatting a USB flash drive

File System
├─ FAT32/NTFS
└─ Start LBA → 2048

File system	Features
FAT32	Compatible, but files up to 4 GB
NTFS	Supports large ISO files

Parts Manage
├─ Re-Partitioning
├─ USB-HDD mode (Single Partition)
└─ Activate

Install MBR

Bootice
└─ Process MBR
    └─Windows NT 5.x/6.x
        └─ Install

Install PBR

Bootice
└─ Process PBR
   └─ Grub4Dos
      └─ Install
         └─ Version 0.4.6a

Creating a Multiboot USB Drive

Format the USB flash drive using → Bootice → Parts Manage → Repartitioning.
Using BOOTICE, perform Re-Partitioning as described in the section above. → How to make the USB flash drive bootable.
Copy the contents of the folder → USB-Files to the USB flash drive.
Integrate the driver → FiraDisk into the Windows ISO image.
Copy the ISO image to the folder → ISO.
Edit the file → menu.lst so that the ISO paths and names match.
Copy the Linux distributions to the TUX folder
Copy WinPE / LiveCD images to the PE folder

[!IMPORTANT]
If desired, all ISOs can be stored in one directory.

Folders "ISO, TUX, PE, Apps" are created solely for convenience.

Structure of a multiboot flash drive

Multiboot USB root/
│
├──GFX/
│ ├── mac.gz
│ └── unifont.hex.gz
│
├── Apps/
│
├── ISO/
├── PE/
├── TUX/
│
├── AutoUnattend.xml
├── GRLDR
├── liveusbl
├── winpeshl.ini
│
└── menu.lst

[!IMPORTANT]
A multiboot flash drive created using this scheme works in both BIOS Legacy and UEFI.

[!WARNING]
Some ISO images may require disabling Secure Boot in the BIOS/UEFI to boot.

Preparing a Windows ISO image

To run Windows installation from a USB flash drive, you need to integrate the FiraDisk driver into the ISO image.

For this purpose → FiraDisk_integrator is used.

Create a working folder
├─ Use Latin characters in the folder name
├─ No spaces
├─ Maximum 8 characters
├─ Copy the Windows ISO into the folder
├─ Place the FiraDisk_integrator script in the same folder
└─ Run the script as administrator

[!IMPORTANT]
You can copy several Windows ISO, of different editions and 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

The script processes all ISO images located in the same folder sequentially and, based on them, creates its own ISO images with the FiraDisk driver.

WinContig — Analysis & Defragmentation

When working with multiboot flash drives, ISO files should not be fragmented.

[!IMPORTANT]
If the ISO is fragmented, errors or problems may occur while loading the ISO into memory.

ISO check

WinContig → Analyze

[!IMPORTANT]
If the program shows the need for optimization, perform defragmentation.

Defragmentation→ launch WinContig

List of drives
├─ Select flash drive
├─ Properties
├─ Service
├─ Check
└─ Optimize

Themes

Themes → located in the make_skins/skins folder

How to Install a New Theme

Select the skin file → for example → mac.gz   
├─ Copy it to the folder → GFX
├─ Edit → menu.lst 
├─ Find the line → gfxmenu /GFX/sony.gz
└─ Replace → sony.gz with mac.gz