Multi-bootin UBER Flash Drive

[thompatry]

I am curious if anyone knows how to set up a flash drive to multi-boot. I want to be able to drop ISOs on the drive without extracting the the ISO and still be able to boot off that ISO. I know it is possible. If anyone has any ideas, can you please help...

 

[berry120]

I know it is possible.

It's not. At least not in the format you describe without some pretty hefty work going on in the background.

Assuming you're talking about Linux here?

You can boot multiple instances of Linux from a single flash drive, yes - but you have to partition it separately for each OS you want, then install your various distros to your different partitions, then finally set up GRUB to recognise the individual partitions. Just dropping ISOs on the drive will register them on there as files in a file system, not individual partitions.

Of course, there may exist some program that does this all in the background - but I've certainly never seen it and even if there was I'd encourage you to still do it the above way just so you know what you're doing! It shouldn't be that hard, as far as Linux is concerned it's just another mount point.

 

[cboucher]

I am curious if anyone knows how to set up a flash drive to multi-boot. I want to be able to drop ISOs on the drive without extracting the the ISO and still be able to boot off that ISO. I know it is possible. If anyone has any ideas, can you please help...

This is absolutely possible. I am am using this very setup on one of my flash drives as an IT tool. Check this out.

 

[wmorri]

Hi,

Have a look at this video for help with that.

Cheers!

 

[berry120]

I stand corrected - I was thinking along completely different lines (and it was late)