Ventoy detail question (ISO files fragmentation)

[Rava]

I read some reviews on Ventoy, like this one
https://www.chip.de/downloads/Ventoy_182634573.html (in German) and want to try it out. That chip.de review is about version 1.0.96 from 06.10.2023, so according to the German wikipedia Ventoy about the most recent version.

The chip.de review states (among the upsides that I not go into here) as downsizes this (roughly and free translated by yours truly)

that it cannot boot all ISO images
that it has some stability issues

but it not says anything about possible issue of a non-linear stored ISO file.

Does any of you fine folks that have used Ventoy for a while have encountered issues that are due to one ISO file on the USB partition being too fragmented into chunks (or too many chunks, or only the first few clusters of the ISO containing the critical boot data being fragmented) all around the partition to successfully load?

[Rapha_]

Does any of you fine folks that have used Ventoy for a while have encountered issues that are due to one ISO file on the USB partition being too fragmented into chunks (or too many chunks, or only the first few clusters of the ISO containing the critical boot data being fragmented) all around the partition to successfully load?

As for starting ISOs that are too fragmented, I don't know; because I already try to put the biggest files (ISOs) first, then the modules, then the config files (e.g. rootcopy). When I delete and copy files, I watch to see if there's (too much) fragmentation: if there is, I defragment the most fragmented ones.

that it cannot boot all ISO images
that it has some stability issues

Yes, when I first tried it, it would boot Porteus-v4.0 and Porteus-v5.0rc1 but not Porteus-v5.0rc2 /0rc3.
On a more recent version of Ventoy, Porteus-v5.0rc3 worked but no longer Porteus-v4.0

By default it formats the large partition in exFAT, I reformatted it in Fat32, because booting in exFAT was much too slow.
I also tried to repartition the large partition into 3 parts (fat32/ntfs/ext4), but it didn't like it at all! I had to reinstall everything again!

[Rava]

On a more recent version of Ventoy, Porteus-v5.0rc3 worked but no longer Porteus-v4.0

By default it formats the large partition in exFAT, I reformatted it in Fat32, because booting in exFAT was much too slow.

The chip.de article states

Die erstellten USB-Sticks werden immer in zwei Partitionen, eine in exFAT und eine FAT unterteilt. Neue ISO-Dateien fügen Nutzer einfach im Explorer hinzu, fertig. Unsere ersten Tests verliefen mit gemischtem Ergebnis, wir konnten nicht alle ISO-Dateien reibungslos booten.

translated that is:

The USB sticks created are always divided into two partitions, one in exFAT and one in FAT. Users simply add new ISO files in Explorer and that's it. Our initial tests had mixed results; we were not able to boot all ISO files smoothly.

So, when you first use it,
* you let it format the USB thumbdrive into FAT and exFAT.
* And you just change the exFAT partition type, e.g. via fdisk's

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t   change a partition type

to VFAT. And use mkfs.fat or mkfs.vfat to format the partition from exFAT to FAT or VFAT.
* And only after that you start Ventoy again and add the ISOs?

Would you agree to this three step course of action?

[Rapha_]

Yes, after installation there are 2 partitions :
A large one, Exfat (for ISOs) and a small one, Fat16 for Ventoy and its own files.

Then, I simply used Gparted to format Exfat --> Fat32

[Rava]

Then, I simply used Gparted to format Exfat --> Fat32

I prefer using fdisk and mkfs.WHATEVER since Gparted reads all available devices in between steps every time, and thus using fdisk and mkfs.WHATEVER is usually quicker. But the results are the same since Gparted is just a GUI wrapper and it really uses e.g. mkfs.fat or mkfs.vfat to format a drive; you can see the command it is executing when you look into its logging details.

[Ed_P]

In the past I have used a Windows app named contig.exe.

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Contig v1.7 - Makes files contiguous
Copyright (C) 1998-2012 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Contig is a utility that defragments a specified file or files.
Use it to optimize execution of your frequently used files.

Code: Select all

@echo off
set _where=%0
set _drv=%_where:~1,3%
if "%_where:~1,1%" == ":" set _drv=%_where:~0,3%
if %_drv% neq con echo %_drv% drive
call :CONTIG iso
call :CONTIG raw
echo.
pause
goto EOF

:CONTIG
echo %1&if exist ..\ISOs\*.%1 Contig\contig.exe ..\ISOs\*.%1&if exist \*.%1 Contig\contig.exe \*.%1

[Rava]

In the past I have used a Windows app named contig.exe.

I don't have any functioning WitlessOS left and not plan in installing that crap every again.

[Ed_P]

Is there a Linux version or it will run in Wine? (personally after wine I go to bed.)

[Otto]

I respect that ventoy exist.
To be honest I am not impress with it.
In the pass I used Grub4dos that it serve me for years.
In my opinion G4d efficiency can boot almost every thing internal/external media without problem.
Ventoy or g4d can do autodetect menu for any iso in the folder/partition. Many reasons why I do not using ventoy actually.
Well now we have grub2 that can do a lot of things also. Iso-booting on ext4 work for me, maybe also ext2/3.
Ventoy has exfat format by default. You can change it to any format, but also with additional problem involve.

[Ed_P]

There is a Linux tool for defragging called e2fsck: https://www.tecmint.com/defragment-linu ... rectories/

[Rava]

There is a Linux tool for defragging called e2fsck: https://www.tecmint.com/defragment-linu ... rectories/

Could that help with defragmentation of a vfat or fat partition:
man e2fsck states this:

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e2fsck - check a Linux ext2/ext3/ext4 file system

It checks ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems, not fat ones, also the man page says this

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fragcheck
                          During pass 1, print a detailed report of  any  dis‐
                          contiguous blocks for files in the file system.

Sounds like it reports discontiguous blocks but not defragments such.
If it can please quote the part of the man page that I missed. (I searched in man for "frag" and the above is the only hit)
I used the version from 06-man.xzm, could be the online version differs but the one from 06-man.xzm should be the one from the e2fsck package in our Porteus 5.01 system.

[Rapha_]

On my Ventoy Usb key, I have a maintenance ISO : Hiren's BootCD with lots of tools for the hard disk including Defraggler (excellent tool)
unfortunately at the moment you can only download the *.zip version and I don't know if Ventoy can boot *.zip files
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/old-versions/


Anyway, you can download the ISO version of the recent Hiren's BootCD PE (But I haven't tested) :
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

[Rava]

you can download the ISO version of the recent Hiren's BootCD PE (But I haven't tested) :
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

It contains the fewest but best free tools. It is being developed for the new age computers, it supports UEFI booting and requires a minimum of 2 GB RAM.

My machine has 4 GB of RAM, so that PE ISO should work fine, yes?

After boot, PE version tries to install drivers like graphics, sound, wireless and ethernet card for your hardware. So that you can connect to a WIFI or Ethernet network. Please Contact Us with your hardware model if your WIFI or Ethernet card is not recognized by the PE version. We will try to add the required drivers in the new releases.

Now, I usually never let any Windoze systems get online (I usually disable any Wifi Connectivity in my BIOS [as of now I do not own a single UEFI machine] - it not states which kind of firewall it uses to secure the machine. Even when you boot it from an ISO (as in: physically burned to a CD or a DVD), usually the internal hard disk is still vulnerable to any attacks.
Do you know how Hiren's BootCD PE secures its system?
A search on https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ is quite inconclusive.
The newest release to mention "firewall" is this
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v152/ (Hiren’s BootCD 15.2 - June 17th, 2018) that is more than 5 years old.
And it only mentions "firewall" like this:

Remote Control Tools
TeamViewer 7.0.14563: Access any remote computer via Internet just like sitting in front of it, even through firewalls, also included version 6.0.10462 for MiniXp (Windows Freeware).

Added in 2 minutes 38 seconds:
Also, it doesn't say anything about BIOS booting, only UEFI:
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/
not mentions BIOS even once.

[Rapha_]

I also have 4GB of ram and I boot my ISOs in Bios mode...Like Hiren's BootCD 15.2 but I already had this ISO

Now it's only available as *.zip, so I suppose it's possible to unzip it and convert it to *.iso to make it bootable ? I don't know...


Otherwise, I see that Defraggler is available in 'Portable' format:
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/dfgportable

Other tools :
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities

Can it be used on Linux using the Wine module?

[Ed_P]

In years past Hiren's PE CD was considered illegal unlike Bart's PE.

An interesting link: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/faq/

and if still interested there's this one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1555789335 ... t-software