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So I was trying to make the switch to Linux, Elementary OS. But I got stuck trying to use Balena Etcher. It wouldn’t recognize the USB drive I was using. I’m not good at this lol.

💬 26 replies

Replies (26)

blackcat6d ago

Have you tried Rufus? It's my favorite tool to flash USBs although balena should work as good, any specific error u facing?

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binsky6d ago

Never heard of Rufus. Might check that out tonight. So here’s what I did: Downloaded the ISO of elementary os. Downloaded balena etcher. Started Balena etcher and selected the iso I needed. And after that I couldn’t select the USB drive I wanted to use. I also tried formatting it multiple times, but no success

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Sync6d ago

Oh … that’s new format the drive into a known extension format ? When the drive is made you do have to boot into it right ?

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daum3ns6d ago

yes go linux free your computer!💟

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Sync6d ago

Ripped of the internet

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CitizenPleb6d ago

Balena etcher kinda sucks. The newest version has issues and the suggested rollback August 2024 version (or whatever they suggest) doesn’t always play nice with current operating systems. Just etch through command line and it should work fine, as long as the USB drive itself isn’t corrupted.

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blackcat6d ago

So annoying, if the USB is correctly detected by the OS and you can see it in explorer and format it I would say the drive seems to be okay As a simple test try to create a file in the USB and ensure it works okay (probably already tested it but yk), may be something with balena etcher, for me Rufus is the goat I let u a link to their webpage here (I like the portable one) https://rufus.ie/

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binsky6d ago

Thx! I’ll try that if I have the time 😌

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Sync6d ago

Well once you made the drive on your pc … plug it into the pc you want to format to and during the startup of your pc you’ll need to select the thumbdrive if it’s windows insert the drive, restart your computer, and immediately tap the manufacturer's Boot Menu key (commonly F12, F2, F8, Esc, or Del) to select the USB device.

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binsky6d ago

Oohh no no! I don’t want to format the whole pc! I formatted the usb drive. Because I thought that was the problem with Balena not “finding” it. But I’ll try Rufus like @blackcat suggested.

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Sync6d ago

Just saying because I think the thumbdrive is fine 😊

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AmonRa4d ago

Booting directly from the USB drive (which is turned into a Bootable drive with Rufus for example) so instead of using your C: drive (or whatever it is for you) to load your OS, you load into the OS on the USB drive. This can be selected in your bios, which drive it will prioritize to boot from.

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binsky6d ago

It worked fine when I was setting up my node… so that’s why I tried Balena again now. I’ve no idea how to etch through command line hahaha.

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CitizenPleb6d ago

It worked great for me back in the day as well, but recently it was giving me problems. It’s the “dd command” if you get stuck with Balena. Have AI help, you got this! 👊

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AmonRa6d ago

Rufus is idd the goat, very easy to use, mind that the USB drive will only be a boot drive at that point and not your regular USB drive anymore until you reformat it again, either you can use it to boot from the USB drive everytime (i used to do that with tails) or install the linux OS with a dual boot option (done that with Ubuntu before) if you want to keep your original OS also so whenever launching your pc you choose which OS to load into.

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Sync6d ago

But to clarify, writing the iso to the thimbdrive does not work since balena doesn’t find the drive to write to or you’ve already written the iso to the drive and now the drive doesn’t show up anymore ?

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binsky6d ago

Writing the iso to the drive doesn’t work, because Balena seemingly doesn’t find the drive.

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Sync6d ago

Also when booting into the drive you have to option to format the pc or just run it of the thulbdrive but you will still have to select the thumdrive in the bootmenu on startup ✌️

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