I have an empty 1TB USB 3.0 SATA drive and was wondering whether I could use it to store installation media for several Linux distributions. Would there be any compatibility or performance problems compared with using a regular USB flash drive or SSD?
Ideally, I would also like to reserve some larger partitions on the same drive so I can install and test a few distributions from it. Is that practical, or would it be better to buy a small flash drive specifically for installers?
3 Answers
Yes, the drive can be used for this, and Ventoy is probably the easiest solution. Install Ventoy onto the external drive, then copy multiple ISO files onto it like ordinary files. When you boot from the drive, Ventoy displays a menu where you can choose which ISO to start. You can also keep other files on the drive, and its larger capacity makes it convenient for storing many installers.
The SATA drive should work, although its speed will depend on whether it contains an SSD or hard disk and on the USB enclosure. For simply booting installers, performance usually is not a major concern. If you only need installation media, a small flash drive is simpler and avoids dedicating a large drive to the setup. If you want a reusable collection of many ISOs, using Ventoy on the 1TB drive is the more useful approach.
A drive containing several partitions is not automatically a multi-boot installer. Writing a bootable ISO usually replaces the existing layout, so you need a bootloader that can select between images. Ventoy handles ISO files well, but using separate partitions as installation sources is more complicated and may require custom bootloader configuration. The installer also needs to write the operating system and bootloader to its destination, so sharing the same physical drive can create extra complications.
That makes sense. I was thinking of it like an older drive that had several operating-system installers, but I hadn't considered the bootloader and partitioning issues.