YoinkIt Documentation

Complete guide to using YoinkIt for USB drive management, cloning, and workflows.

Installation

YoinkIt comes with both CLI and GUI. The MSI installer sets up both automatically.

• Download the installer from the product page
• Run the .msi and follow the wizard
• CLI is added to PATH automatically - test with: yoink --version

Command Line Reference

yoink list

List all connected USB drives with detailed information.

yoink list

Output:
Drive: E:\
Label: BOOTABLE_USB
Size: 64.2 GB
Type: Removable
Filesystem: FAT32
Status: Ready

yoink rip

Clone a USB drive to an image file (IMG/ISO).

# Basic usage
yoink rip E: --output bootable-usb.img

# With verification (slower but safer)
yoink rip E: --output proxmox.img --verify

# Compressed output
yoink rip E: --output backup.img.gz --compress

# Show progress
yoink rip E: --output image.img --verbose

Options

• --output - Output file path (required)
• --verify - Verify checksum after rip
• --compress - Compress with gzip (.gz extension)
• --verbose - Show detailed progress

yoink clean

Wipe and format a USB drive (removes all partitions).

# Format as NTFS
yoink clean E: --format ntfs

# Format as FAT32
yoink clean E: --format fat32

# Format as exFAT (best for large files)
yoink clean E: --format exfat

# Quick format (faster)
yoink clean E: --format ntfs --quick

ProxMox Workflow Example

Here's how to create a reusable ProxMox USB installer:

# Step 1: Create ProxMox USB once (using Rufus/Etcher)
# Step 2: Clone it to an image file
yoink rip E: --output proxmox-8.2-installer.img --verify

# Step 3: When you need to deploy to a new server
# Insert fresh USB drive (F:)
yoink restore F: --source proxmox-8.2-installer.img --verify

# Step 4: Boot server from USB
# Done! No need to re-download or re-flash ProxMox

Batch Operations

Clone the same image to multiple drives using PowerShell:

# List of drive letters
$drives = @('E:', 'F:', 'G:', 'H:')

# Clone image to each drive
foreach ($drive in $drives) {
    yoink restore $drive --source golden-image.img
    Write-Host "Completed $drive"
}

GUI Usage

The graphical interface provides the same functionality with a visual workflow:

Ripping to Image

1. Launch YoinkIt GUI from Start Menu
2. Click the "Rip" tab
3. Select source drive from dropdown
4. Click "Browse" to choose output file location
5. Enable "Verify after rip" checkbox (recommended)
6. Click "Start Rip" and watch the progress bar

Restoring from Image

1. Click the "Restore" tab
2. Select image file (IMG/ISO)
3. Select target USB drive
4. Click "Restore" (confirms before writing)

Cleaning a Drive

1. Click the "Clean" tab
2. Select drive to wipe
3. Choose filesystem (NTFS, FAT32, exFAT)
4. Click "Clean Drive" (requires confirmation)

Safety Features

• USB-only operations - YoinkIt refuses to touch internal drives (C:, D: if not removable)
• Confirmation prompts - All destructive operations require explicit confirmation
• Checksum verification - SHA256 checksums ensure perfect clones
• Operation logging - Full logs saved to %APPDATA%\YoinkIt\logs\

Troubleshooting

Advanced Tips

Scripting in CI/CD

# Jenkins/GitLab CI example
# Automatically create USB images on every release
yoink rip E: --output "releases/v${VERSION}.img" --verify
yoink compress "releases/v${VERSION}.img"

Version Control for Images

Keep multiple versions of your bootable USBs:

images/
├── proxmox-7.4.img
├── proxmox-8.1.img
├── proxmox-8.2.img
├── windows-11-recovery.img
└── ubuntu-22.04-server.img