RMPrepUSB – Boot Multiple ISO’s From USB Easily!

Topic - Tips

A numbers of years now I have been playing with tools that would allow one  make a bootable USB Flash disk. I have tried Rufus,  the Microsoft Tool, UNetBootin etc, but none have allowed me to EASILY boot multiple ISO files from 1 Flash disk.

That was until I stumbled across RMPrepUSB (aka Easy2Boot)…

You download a 7.2Mb ZIP file that contains an installer for RMPrepUSB – here. Once downloaded run the setup file.

Next you download the Easy2Boot ZIP file (8Mb / 32Mb) from here.  Once downloaded extract the ZIP to a new folder.

Insert your USB Flash disk.

Open the RMPrepUSB application. This is what it will like this:

RMPrepUSB

Select the USB Flash disk and tick the ‘No User Prompts’ checkbox and select (see screenshot below – click to zoom):

1. Partition Size – MAX
2. Volume Name – Easy2Boot (or whatever name you like!)
3. Bootloader Options – WinPE v2
4. Filesystem and Overrides – FAT32 + Boot as HDD (or NTFS + Boot as HDD) – FAT32 is more compatible with a wider variety of OS’s, but you can’t have files >4GB with FAT32!
5. Copy OS Files – Copy Files=’NO’ – set to the path of the Easy2Boot .zip file you downloaded and extracted
6. Click 6 Prepare drive (this will erase all contents)

E2BSetup

7. Once this has completed, click on Install grub4dos button – answer ‘No’=PBR. (see screenshot above) – use the latest version of grldr if prompted to overwrite it.

You should have a USB Flash disk ready and waiting for your ISO files!

The following folder structure on the drive is where you will be placing the ISO files:

The Main Menu folder
\_ISO\MAINMENU                   <— Payload files (except Windows Install ISOs) that you want listed in the Main Menu go here 

Sub-menu folders: (these folders are listed as menu entries in the Main menu, if populated) – mnu files+payload files should go at level 3.
\_ISO\ANTIVIRUS                    <— for any AV payloads
\_ISO\BACKUP                       <— for any BACKUP payloads
\_ISO\DOS                             <— for any DOS payloads
\_ISO\LINUX                           <— for any LINUX payloads
\_ISO\UTILITIES                      <— for any UTILITIES payloads
\_ISO\WINPE                         <— for any WINPE payloads
 
Special payload-only sub-menu:
\_ISO\AUTO                           <— for payload files only (you can use sub-folders of any name) – all .mnu files are ignored.
 
Windows Install ISO folders: (if any .ISO files are present a Windows entry will be listed in the Main menu)
\_ISO\WINDOWS\SVR2012            <– Server 2012 Install ISOs go here
\_ISO\WINDOWS\SVR2K8R2         <– Server 2008 R2 Install ISOs go here
\_ISO\WINDOWS\VISTA                <– Wndows Vista Install ISOs go here
\_ISO\WINDOWS\WIN7                 <– Winodws 7 Install ISOs go here
\_ISO\WINDOWS\WIN8                 <– Windows 8 and 8.1 Install ISOs go here
\_ISO\WINDOWS\XP                     <– XP Install ISOs (and Win 2003 Install ISOs) go here (XP 64-bit should have ’64’ somewhere in the name of the ISO file)

Once you have finished copying the ISO’s across boot off the USB Flash Disk and you should be greated with a menu that looks like this:

EasyBoot

If you get a new ISO file – just copy it into the relevant folder and boot up! No mess no fuss!  It supports a huge list of ISO’s – check it out here.

This is one tool that every techie should have!

MadMike posted at 2014-3-23 Category: Interesting Finds

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