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I am trying to have multiple USB installers for different OSs, like Debian, Ubuntu, windows, etc. I have an external 2T HDD (Seagate Expansion+) with a single partition in it. What I want to do is to make a few little partitions in it, and burn the different images to those partitions, without affecting the 50 GB of data I have in the main partition, which I can't move anywhere. I just want something like this:

Drive        Size      Bootable

/dev/sdb1    1988 GB

/dev/sdb2    4 GB       *

/dev/sdb3    4 GB       * 
/dev/sdb4    4 GB       *

With the 4 GB partitions being bootable OS installers, and without formatting the big partition, because there's stuff there I can't move out that I'd like to keep

My operative systems: Grub dual-boot:

  1. ParrotSec OS 4.9 amd64
  2. Windows 7 Home Premium

I have tried:

Multibootusb -> has bugs and doesn't start

dd command -> doesn't support multiboot

Unetbootin -> doesn't support multiboot

YUMI -> it just gives me access to the live part of the ISO, losing the installer, which is part of my plan

Edit: Nevermind, YUMI did the trick, I just accidentally downloaded a live version only of ubuntu instead of the installer

Edit 2: For future reference I'd like to mention that I currently use Ventoy, which allows you to just install the tool on the drive, and then just throw ISO files in it. It will show a GRUB-like menu and allow you to choose why ISO file to boot

Ciro García
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2 Answers2

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MultiBoot using External USB HDD

You can use MultiBootUSB, http://multibootusb.org/, to install multiple OS to a specific partition on an HDD or each OS to it's own partition. Multiple persistence is also possible.

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MultiBootUSB 9.2 is working with Ubuntu up to 18.04. It will boot 'buntu 20.04 ISO's placed in the /multibootusb/iso/ folder. Persistence and UEFI boot is working with Linux versions but not with the Windows version of MBUSB.

It is easy to just install GRUB to a hard drive and use that to boot ISO files. The following was written for USB but also works on HDD: How do I create a Multiboot USB that is compatible with both BIOS and UEFI?

C.S.Cameron
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YUMI works just fine. I can install anything i want in a single partition and choose whatever I want at start-up.

Ciro García
  • 409