[issue]: Gparted detecting partitioning issues after installation

[hirntot]

Official FAQ

• I have checked the official FAQ.

Ventoy Version

1.0.97

What about latest release

Yes. I have tried the latest release, but the bug still exist.

Try alternative boot mode

Yes. I have tried them, but the bug still exist.

BIOS Mode

Both

Partition Style

MBR

Disk Capacity

32GB

Disk Manufacturer

No response

Image file checksum (if applicable)

None

Image file download link (if applicable)

No response

What happened?

I installed Ventoy on my everyday stick, after multisystem is not continued anymore... for the first, I am super happy with the approach of Ventoy.
But for some strange reason, my printer/scanner saves the scanned PDFs on the 2nd partition (32MB). I guess, I can't discuss with my printer about that issue. I wouldn't care too much if:

• the partition is not just 32MB big, but maybe 132MB
• my all-day-computer (linuxMint) would mount that partition automatically. It doesn't, but I can mount it manually. didn't find a better solution for that either. but first things first.

My first attempt was to resize the partitions using Gparted; later I tried to resize it by command line, all with the same result. I was able to shrink the first partition, to move the second, but not to resize it. Now there's 100MB of unallocated space within the partition. I'll just post a screenshot (sorry, it's German), and wait for someone to tell me what command you would like me to enter in case you need more information:

To me, this seems to be a bug in the formatting process, maybe in the partition tarbel. But I'm not too familiar with that kind of programming... Anyone an idea?

Thank you for taking care!

[steve6375]

You cannot move or change the size of the 2nd partition. If you do then Ventoy will not work and report a problem.
Ventoy checks the start sector and size of partition 2 on boot.
You could try formatting the 1st partition as fat32. However the biggest iso or VHD you can put on that partition would be 4gb.

[hirntot]

thanks for your reply Steve!

Ventoy checks the start sector and size of partition 2 on boot.

ah, ok! is that a security thing? sounds reasonable in a way, but still I am wondering why gpartet detects an Issue with the partitions.

You could try formatting the 1st partition as fat32

as a solution to my printer not detecting the first partition? what a great, simple idea. why didn't I test that USB drive myself, even after I already formatted fat32 a few times... I will test that when I get home next week (being abroad right now).
But I was happy to have Win11-iso (5,7GB) on the drive as well. would it be even possible to set up a third partition one way or the other?
something like:
Partition1: exfat 20GB -- ISO-Files
Partition2: fat32 11GB -- Documents
Partition3: fat16 32MB -- Ventoy
How would Ventoy react?

[Korkman]

You can do something like that. It loses a bit of comfort, but works well. Follow this:

• Backup your data
• Reformat the drive with Ventoy
• Instruct it to make the first partition, which is going to be FAT32, rather small, matching your use-case. You do that in the options menu, leaving empty space at the end of the device. That would be your big partition, then.
• After formatting, use a disk partitioning tool (Windows disk management is fine) to add a third partition at the end and format that with exfat

Now ISOs added to that third partition won't show up in the boot menu immediately. But you can press F2 to browse, select the third partition and launch them from there. I guess there are some drawbacks like losing the ability to have persistence files, injection and so on but if you don't need those advanced features, you'll be fine.