Ventoy Disk Layout In GPT
Since Ventoy-1.0.15, you can install Ventoy with GPT partition style. (Windows: Option--->Partition Style, Linux: -g option)
Bellow is a 32GB USB drive's layout after install Ventoy in it. You can see that the whole disk was divided into 2 partitions in GPT format.
- About Part1
By default, Ventoy select exFAT filesystem for the main partition to hold iso files. exFAT has better compatibility on Windows/Linux/Mac and exFAT is suitable for USB stick.
You can reformat the 1st partition with other filesystem, now exFAT/FAT32/NTFS/UDF/XFS/Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 are supported.
It should be noted that, if you choose XFS/Ext2/Ext3/Ext4, the USB will be unavaliable on Windows and can not be used to install Windows.
But if you only use Linux that will be a good choice, because XFS/Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 will have better performance in Linux.
- About Part2
There must be an EFI System Partition with FAT filesystem and that's the mandatory requirements of UEFI specifications.
So this partition is created to hold EFI boot file and other files nesscessy to Ventoy. These files are very small, so 32MB is enough.
Besides, the EFI partition can be at part1 also, but I set it at part2 just because that in some version of Windows like Windows 7, only the first partition of the USB drive is visable to the system.
And that's good for Ventoy's protection.
This partition is very small and used by ventoy, so you better not change anything in this partition.
- About First 1MB Space
As for GPT format, there is a protect MBR in the 1st sector (LBA0), and then from LBA1 ~ LBA33 is the GPT partition head and partition table. LBA34 ~ LBA2047 is used to store legacy bios bootloader of Ventoy (same with MBR format).
Reserved Disk Space
You can preserve some space at the bottom of the disk. This is a 32GB USB drive's layout after install Ventoy in it (with 2GB reserved space).
When install Ventoy, you can enable and set the reserved space with "Option" ---> "Partition Configuration" (Windows) or "-r" option (Linux). The reserved space configuration is only for installation process.
- The reserved space must at the bottom of the disk
- Ventoy MUST use Part1 and Part2, don't change their position and size.
- You can create Part3, Part4, Part5 ... with the reserved space and use them as you want.