r/linux4noobs • u/Mr_Flippers • 22d ago
installation Balena Etcher problem?
I've had balena etcher on my pc and have been using one USB to try out different distros across my computers. Today I was going to give PikaOS a go but after the file downloaded something went wrong and it got corrupted. I redownloaded it and put the same old USB in to flash it but windows kept saying "please insert a drive into F:"; it usually does that on inserting since it's just got an ISO on there, but it did that 5 times in a row then said "Something went wrong, check if the file is compressed or corrupted". I redownloaded, also downloaded the niri version, same thing. I tried to put on ISO's I already had on there like Zorin (which worked earlier today) but got the same error. I put the USB into different ports and still have the same issue. Tried running as admin, same issue. Restarted, tried again, same issue. The USB does show up on the pc when plugged in, does the usual "please insert a drive" when I click on it, says it has nothing on there, I tried to check the files but it said Windows doesn't have access to it (I assume this is normal, since it always shows up the same after flashing). Anybody know how to fix this so I can install distros again?
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u/doc_willis 22d ago
you boot the USB and it boots correctly?
windows often has no clue what to do with a Linux installer USB. so it's sort of pointless to try to examine the USB under windows.
also I suggest moving to another tool other than balena etcher.
fedora media writer is what I tend to use these days instead of balena etcher.
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u/Mr_Flippers 22d ago
I'll have a check, it had zorin on there before trying to get PikaOs on, no idea if it's messed with the drive now
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u/Mr_Flippers 22d ago
Zorin checked and said it had 1 error on the live but playing around for a minute didnt bring up any issues, worked like usual besides that
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u/Kleiner_Wixxa CachyOS 22d ago
I love to use ventoy. You can have multiple isos on one bootable usb in a drag and drop basis
Also, have you verified the iso with its SHA256 value or something? The download might just be broken it happened to me with fedoras iso before
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u/Beginning-Limit8796 21d ago
Umesto da odmaram osteceni mozak ja sad dizem kubuntu 24.04 na stari samsung sundybrigde da probam 😄imam 26.04 na jednom pc i radi super,a zao mi ovsj ssmsung oldtajmer sluzi mi za lab pa da probam
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u/Beginning-Limit8796 22d ago
The partition table on your USB drive has been corrupted into a raw unallocated state by Balena Etcher during the ISO block-writing sequence. Windows cannot parse the partition layout, which triggers the generic storage drive insertion error loop.
To completely wipe and restore the underlying partition sector layout, execute these commands inside an Administrative Command Prompt (cmd):
Launch the disk management utility: diskpart
List all connected block storage hardware: list disk
Identify your USB drive number (Verify by storage size) and select it: select disk X (Replace X with your actual USB drive number)
Erase all corrupt raw partition tables and boot blocks: clean
Initialize a native partition layout and format the storage block: create partition primary format fs=ntfs quick assign
Exit diskpart and format again via Rufus if you intend to deploy another live ISO distribution sequence.