Ventoy.
Fill it with ISOs
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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Linux
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I install a full MX-Linux distro on an old 32Gb usb drive.
Particularly helpful when family or friends have IT problems.
I install the latest downloaded distro on a usb with dd:
sudo fdisk -l
sudo dd if=MX-23.5_x64.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress
The /dev/sdX could be sdb, sdc, sdd, or microsd /dev/nvme0n1
boot into the live distro F12,
fully update the live disk.
set it up as you would your new linux device. network manager, web browser, text editor, email, VPN, etc and any tools you want.
whatever you change here goes into your new usb distro settings
once complete, install and run bleachbit as user and as root to clear all the caches and install data.
install another blank usb into the laptop
Open MX-Linux tools to create a snapshot
select Snapshot.
select a different snapshot directory. use the blank usb you just inserted,
usually: /dev/sdb
rename the snapshot to a name of choice.
once the creation of the snapshot is complete, safely remove the usb drive and shut down the live distro.
boot into your daily driver.
Insert the usb drive with the MX-Linux snapshot, and transfer it to a new folder/directory.
insert the 32Gb usb. format it with gparted, fat32 is fine
open the folder/directory with the snapshot.iso
open a terminal
then install the snapshot onto the usb with dd.
sudo fdisk -l
sudo dd if=snapshot.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress
The /dev/sdX could be sdb, sdc, sdd, or microsd /dev/nvme0n1
always double check with:
sudo fdisk -l
32gb loop of Never Gonna Give You Up
How about a project Gutenberg "best of" CD full of free public domain ebooks?
Download page: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11220 Link directly to download: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11220/PG2003-08.ISO
They also had a dual layer DVD download if you want something bigger. They don't seem to host it anymore, but archive.org does.
Ventoy? Linux live iso files aren't too big less than 5Gb each. You could toss on a handful of utilities like memcheck, clonezilla, and a hdd eraser. Then a few isos of distros you want to try. Adding and removing isos is a breeze with ventoy.
Did the Ventoy binary blob thing ever get resolved?
You can fit since some hours of 1080p porn.
When the apocalypse happens and Internet goes away it's gonna be worth a lot of bottle caps
You should probably take the hit and put a few 4K pieces on there as a treat. Maybe balance out with a 480/720 collection for smut.
What is the appcalupse??? Is that some Jamaican catastrophe that ends all software application?
I corrected it, now you look like a fool
I am shamed! Oh the humiliation.
;-)
/dev/urandom - you never know what you're going to get
I keep getting the complete works of Shakespeare but the main character is always named Dave. 🤷
How is this so hard!? A monkey could do it!
You could install a full suite of portable applications: portableapps.com
I’d start off by formatting the thing with Hiren’s boot usb. This way you’ve got that build as the base and the utilities that are prepackaged therein. Then you add all the portable stuff you think you might need.
Is Hirens still updated? Last time I used it (years ago) it was pretty long in the tooth.
I’ve been using it all the time. Currently I think uses windows 10 as the shell if I’m not mistaken? But there’s still also the 7.
Counter Strike Source and other old school LAN games.
Then invite friends over and pass the drive around so they can all install games and you can have a LAN party.
Come oooon, where are the comments about cool hacking shit where you can extract data or installs a keylogger just by plugging in the flash drive?
you’re thinking of badusb, generally it’s gonna require bespoke or modified hardware :/
Aaaw maaaan :(
there’s still plenty of ways to make stuff autorun in a similar way. the thing that makes proper badUSBs so scary is that they’re recognized by the system as a keyboard.
it’s somewhat difficult to discern bad actors from regular users for this kind of attack, but it also hasn’t become prolific enough for anyone to bother. at a certain point it’s more the fault of building security for allowing some randy to access to sensitive hardware.
A bag of frozen peas.
Silent Hill 2
Fill it with this
Retro gaming device seems pretty cool actually. What if you configure your system so that when you plug it in, it autolaunches an emulator and looks at ROMs on the USB :o
Check out Kiwix for offline libraries like Wikipedia and TED
TailsOS
maybe you could install a "portable" linux system on it. you may want to encrypt it though
Recently I recreated my favorite drive. Runs grub, stores multiple distros it can boot from, has a standard exfat partition, and an encrypted partition.
Wanna share more details? Sounds like something I should actually put on my 32gb
I'll work on putting something together with all of the details.
I use thumbdrives for temporary sneakernet kind of storage mostly.
Set up a live persistent usb, i have MX on a drive with a few backup things.
I've heard usb flash memory can degrade over time, but refreshing the cells by plugging it in once in a while can mitigate the potential data loss.
I have a few USBs like that and i plug them in once a year for about 5 minutes. I don't usually even mount the data. Not sure if it makes an actual difference, but nothing lost so far
This is a non issue and so overblown. I've had flash drives for a decade and some for 15 years and they have no housing at all at this point and you can plug them in and they run great albeit slow as hell for live USBs but flash drives are super durable.
I agree. I've never had one stop working.
I have. It doesn’t happen often; but when you take a situation before you can afford to buy a bunch so you have like, only a few and do installs constantly of varying distros and OSes, you’re formatting / preparing those multiple times a day for a few years. Eventually they just sort of give up.
But honestly, that’s not even close to typical usage. A typical user or even a very active user will likely never have to worry about it.
Out of like 50 usb drives I think I’ve lost like 4 maybe 6. And yeah they’re all good brands like Sandisk, Lexar. Nowadays I buy whatever’s cheap like micro center when they have a give away I’ll take the freebie, and otherwise I buy Sandisk, Lexar, Kingston, Samsung or Crucial.
Oh and on the subject, basically, I’ve spent the better part of my life immersed in tech. I got started in the early 1980s and yeah, I’m kinda old, but it still blows my mind that there are now microSD chips that hold 1.5TB. Just… fucking blows my mind! I still remember being jazzed about getting my first 1GB hard drive. Friends were jealous. This is just absolutely insane.
I think it’s counterintuitive insofar as it goes against a kind of social trope that laymen are blown away by tech because they don’t understand it blah blah but I have found that no understanding it is what makes them all just take it for granted. Techies who have lived through the growth of this stuff and seen it from its early stages are far more impressed and in awe of the crazy advancements. Because we actually appreciate it.
It’s like how my friend and I who are both aviation enthusiasts actually look up at planes flying by sometimes are we’re like damn, it’s still goddamn marvelous. Because we understand it and how amazing it is for people to have thought it up and made it happen. Although we’re each certain that had we lived then, we would have pioneered aviation as well lol. Seems obvious really.
Did I just say all that? Sorry, I’m passionate.
I guess that's the difference. I don't tend to format mine often, if ever.
It is amazing that you can buy a TB drive these days, especially at the size they are. And amazing you can fill one up.
It's good to keep that sense of wonder, IMO.
I’ve gor 4x8TB units in my NAS running Synology’s equivalent of RAID 5, but better. And then I also have 2x12TB drives in my main workstation for downloads, eval, testing & staging, services and data hoarding from open directories. I’m not saying I’m filling it all up, because I do have plenty of space available, but I’m def using it substantially lol.
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I would also probably try to plug USB drives in once a year or so if I were being diligent, but in reality I recently found a handful of USB flash drives that I'd stored in a box in my parents' unattached garage, and every one of them could be read completely without any issues. They ran the gamut of build quality from expensive, name-brand drives to no-name dollar-store keychains. They'd been sitting in that box, untouched, for a little over nine years, and I'm pretty sure that some of them hadn't been used for several years even before that.
I wouldn't rely on it for critical data, but USB flash might not be so terrible.
I installed Ventoy on mine and dropped a few live ISO files: Clonezilla, Linux Mint, and Windows PE
I'll sometimes use the Windows PE ISO for tools like CrystalDiskInfo. Have Clonezilla to quickly test out random computers without a GUI and Linux Mint when I want a GUI.
The rest of the space comes in handy for quick and dirty file transfers between Linux/Mac/Windows/printers. Especially with my work computer never touching my primary home network, an airgapped retro gaming setup, and most of my other drives formatted for use with Linux.
A backup of your irreplaceable files.
Copies of important documents or photos you cant afford to lose. Then leave it in a safe place. Encrypt it if you like.
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