Hey everyone! I'm trying to find a multiboot tool that works with external SSDs that have a 4096 cluster size. I've used Ventoy and YUMI with USB flash drives, and they are great, but when I switch to an external SSD, I run into some compatibility issues. Ventoy refuses to prepare the media, citing that 4K sector drives are incompatible. YUMI can create media but it doesn't show up in UEFI boot. Are there any other tools out there that can help me boot different ISOs from an external SSD? Thanks a lot for any suggestions!
3 Answers
Have you tried Easy2Boot? It might work for your situation!
Just to clarify, your SSD has 4K SECTORS, which are different from clusters. Most multiboot solutions don’t support disks with 4K sectors because the legacy BIOS typically only handles 512-byte sectors. You might want to check if there’s a setting on your drive that enables 512-byte compatibility; otherwise, it seems you’re out of luck for using that drive for multibooting.
Thanks for the info! I couldn't update the title to clarify that. I guess it looks like there isn't a working solution for this right now.
Good point about the MBR and GPT modes! Do you think there’s a chance that changing the format to GPT could help with Ventoy? I’ve used it on NVMe drives before with no issues, but I'm not sure about needing MBR in 2025 with UEFI being the norm now.
It does seem like some external enclosures with certain NVMEs work fine due to sector compatibility. However, I’ve faced the same issue with external SSDs from brands like Netac and Kingston (XS1000), where Ventoy just won’t prep the drive regardless of the format.
Unfortunately, E2B gives the same error as Ventoy, stating: 'SORRY: THIS DRIVE HAS 4K SECTORS AND IS NOT MBR BOOTABLE!' So it seems like another dead end.