RMPrepUSB – Boot Multiple ISO’s From USB Easily!
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:
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)
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:
\_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.
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:
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!
