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Create a Ventoy USB drive on macOS

Download and install Ventoy onto a USB drive from macOS using the official GUI app. Drop ISO files directly onto the drive — no re-flashing between images.

Shellbash
Updated
Script
bash
# 1. Find your USB drive identifier — VERIFY before proceeding
diskutil list

# 2. Set the version (check https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases for latest)
VENTOY_VER="1.0.99"

# 3. Download the macOS package
curl -LO "https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases/download/v${VENTOY_VER}/ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}-mac.tar.gz"

# 4. Extract and launch the GUI
tar -xzf "ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}-mac.tar.gz"
cd "ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}"
open VentoyGUI.app

What this does

Installs Ventoy onto a USB drive, creating a bootable multi-ISO drive. After installation you copy ISO files directly to the drive — Ventoy presents a selection menu at boot time. No re-flashing needed when you add or change images.

Why this approach

Ventoy turns a single USB drive into a multi-boot toolkit — install it once, then copy as many ISOs as will fit (Proxmox VE, Ubuntu, macOS recovery, SystemRescue) and select which one to boot from a menu. No reflashing between uses. For a homelab operator who regularly installs and recovers systems, this means one well-stocked drive instead of a collection of single-purpose USB sticks.

On macOS the typical ISO-writing tools (Etcher, dd via Terminal) work fine but require reflashing the drive for every new image. The Ventoy approach requires the macOS Gatekeeper override (right-click → Open) because the GUI binary is unsigned, but that’s a one-time step to install. After that, managing the drive is just dragging ISOs to the ExFAT partition.

The disk identification warning in this playbook (checking Disk Utility or diskutil list before proceeding) is equally important on macOS as on Linux. Ventoy’s install process partitions the drive it’s given; pointing it at the wrong disk destroys that disk’s contents. The ExFAT data partition is immediately visible in Finder after install, making it easy to verify the right drive was used.

Prerequisites

  • A USB drive (8 GB minimum; 32 GB+ recommended)
  • macOS 10.15 Catalina or later
  • curl (built into macOS)

Critical: identify the correct disk

Before proceeding, run diskutil list and identify your USB drive. Look for an external disk with a size matching your drive:

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *32.0 GB   disk2

Never select your internal disk (/dev/disk0 or /dev/disk1).

Using the GUI

  1. Open VentoyGUI.app from the extracted folder
  2. macOS may show a Gatekeeper warning — right-click → Open to bypass it
  3. Select your USB drive from the device list at the top
  4. Click Install and confirm — Ventoy will partition and format the drive

Command-line alternative

If you prefer the CLI, Ventoy’s shell script works from Terminal:

cd ventoy-1.0.99
# Unmount the drive first (replace disk2 with your disk)
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
# Install (replace rdisk2 with your raw disk — note the 'r' prefix)
sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/disk2

macOS uses /dev/rdiskN for raw device access. Use the device identifier from diskutil list without the partition suffix (e.g. disk2, not disk2s1).

Updating an existing Ventoy drive

sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -u /dev/disk2

The -u flag upgrades the bootloader only — your ISOs are preserved.

Adding ISOs

Once installed, the Ventoy data partition mounts automatically in Finder. Drag and drop ISOs directly onto the drive. You can create subdirectories to organise them.

Notes

  • The VentoyGUI.app is an unsigned binary — macOS Gatekeeper will block it on first launch; right-click → Open to proceed
  • Ventoy supports ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x), and EFI files
  • Source code: github.com/ventoy/Ventoy (open source, Apache 2.0)
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