Re-installing parts 1 & 2

[balanga]

In attempting to reformat partition 1 from NTFS to EXT4 and restoring its contents, I am no longer able to boot Ventoy.

It comes up with:-

VTVTVTVTVTVT

Is it possible to reinstall Ventoy on these two partitions?

ventoy2dsk.sh -u does not recognise that Ventoy has been installed.

[0x6A7232]

https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_non_destructive.html

3.2.3. The 1st partition must contains NTFS or EXT2/3/4 filesystem.
If partition 1 is NTFS, then ntfs-3g package must be installed.
If partition 1 is EXT2/3/4, then e2fsprogs package must be installed.

So look for ntfs-3g in your EFI and put e2fsprogs in, I guess? Might need to copy from ventoy install archive or .iso

[balanga]

https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_non_destructive.html

3.2.3. The 1st partition must contains NTFS or EXT2/3/4 filesystem.
If partition 1 is NTFS, then ntfs-3g package must be installed.
If partition 1 is EXT2/3/4, then e2fsprogs package must be installed.

So look for ntfs-3g in your EFI and put e2fsprogs in, I guess?  Might need to copy from ventoy install archive or .iso

I have two Ventoy disks. Can I dd the first 1MB of one to the other?

[0x6A7232]

https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_non_destructive.html

3.2.3. The 1st partition must contains NTFS or EXT2/3/4 filesystem.
If partition 1 is NTFS, then ntfs-3g package must be installed.
If partition 1 is EXT2/3/4, then e2fsprogs package must be installed.

So look for ntfs-3g in your EFI and put e2fsprogs in, I guess?  Might need to copy from ventoy install archive or .iso

I have two Ventoy disks. Can I dd the first 1MB of one to the other?

I think the partition table is stored there as well as the boot code (at least it is for MBR... don't know where GPT puts boot loaders) so IIRC you had to do dd if= of= bs=446 count=1 to copy just the boot code and leave the partition table intact.

See here:

The MBR is stored in the first 512 bytes of the disk. It consists of 4 parts:

1. The first 440 bytes contain the bootstrap code (boot loader).
   
2. The next 6 bytes contain the disk signature.
   
3. The next 64 bytes contain the partition table (4 entries of 16 bytes each, one entry for each primary partition).
   
4. The last 2 bytes contain a boot signature.
   

( https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dd )

EDIT: oh, if you want to leave the disk signature intact do bs=440 instead of 446