BalenaEtcher- How to create a bootable USB flash drive using Etcher

Here is the step-by-step tutorial to getting started BalenaEtcher to know how you can use Etcher for creating bootable USB flash drives.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive, CD or DVD is the maiden step to giving new life to your existing or brand new PC with a new operating system. There are several programs you can use, for creating a bootable USB flash drive, available for different platforms, but most of them are complex, and if not, you will face a hard time dealing with the tools and the options available for creating a bootable USB flash drive. But you will mostly need two things to create a bootable USB flash drive. An image file, and a USB flash drive to write the same on. If you are having these two things, you are ready to create a bootable USB flash drive.

BalenaEtcher is thus, perfect for the purpose. It doesn’t have unnecessary options to confuse you. BalenaEtcher offers a very simple and intuitive user interface, where you just have to select the image file and the USB flash drive to create a bootable USB stick. Though you can obviously change some necessary settings, the default settings should work without any issues at all. Unlike most other programs, BalenaEtcher is available for Windows 10/8/7, Linux, and Mac OS, which means you will never have to look for new programs to create bootable USB flash drives, lest you switch platforms.

How to install and use BalenaEtcher

Step 1: Download & install Etcher on Windows 10/7

Download and install BalenaEtcher for Windows. The installation of the program on Windows is similar to the installation of other programs on Windows.

If you are using Linux, you can download the source code of BalenaEtcher from GitHub from the same link above, and compile the same to use it.

Step 2: Insert a USB drive

Once the installation is complete, insert the USB flash drive for making the bootable USB flash drive and open Etcher from the desktop shortcut menu or from the Start menu.

Step 3: Select a bootable image for Etcher

You will get the following user interface. Just click on ‘Flash from file’ and choose the image for creating the bootable USB flash drive. BalenaEtcher supports several image formats like ISO, BIN, DMG, IMG, ETCH, and many more. Chances are very less, you will have an image with the format not supported by BalenaEtcher.

 

Step 4: Select the connected USB flash drive on BalenaEtcher

Next, choose the USB flash drive that you want to make bootable. If only a single USB storage device is connected, it will automatically be selected, else you can click on ‘Change’ to choose a different USB flash drive connected to the system.

Select the connected USB flash drive

Just select the desired USB storage device and click on ‘Continue’.

select the desired USB storage

Step 5: Flash ! to create a bootable USB drive

Finally, click on ‘Flash!’ to create the bootable USB flash drive with the default settings.

 Etcher to create bootable USB drive

Once the process starts, flashing will take some time depending upon the size of the bootable image, and the speed supported by the USB flash drive.

The process of flashing will be followed by validation, after which you will be able to boot from the USB flash drive.

The USB flash drive might get ejected and connected once the process is over, just before the validation process. Don’t worry about it. Once the process is successfully completed, the drive will be ejected automatically, if you don’t change the default settings.

BalenaEtcher validation process BalenaEtcher to create bootable USB 006

BalenaEtcher is the simplest tool for creating bootable USB flash drives. The user interface is not complex at all, and most newbies can use the software with ease. There aren’t settings that you will find difficult to understand, in BalenaEtcher.

Step 6: Flash Complete, Eject the drive

On getting the ‘Flash Complete!‘ message, you can exit Etcher or start flashing another USB flash drive.

BalenaEtcher to create bootable USB 007

So that was it. Do you have any questions about using BalenaEtcher? Feel free to comment the same down below.

Other Useful Resources:

 

 

6 thoughts on “BalenaEtcher- How to create a bootable USB flash drive using Etcher”

  1. Well that sounds too easy. On the Etcher website, they say, “Why is my drive not bootable? Etcher copies images to drives byte by byte, without doing any transformation to the final device, which means images that require special treatment to be made bootable, like Windows images, will not work out of the box. In these cases, the general advice is to use software specific to those kind of images, usually available from the image publishers themselves.”
    I’m not sure I want to waste hours trying what you have outlined, only to find out that it doesn’t work. Why would their instructions say it doesn’t work, and your article say it does?

    Reply
  2. Thank You, Great Tool. I had try other tools but this one worked ( transfer image on linux, boot win7).
    When it didn’t work, I realized I needed to check the boot order on the Win Laptop. That was it.
    So many linux sites, said used Rufus but that doesn’t run on linux.

    Thanks

    Reply
  3. This worked great. I made boot thumb drives of Mint Mate, Mint cinnamon and POP!, and they just worked. It boots perfectly on my laptop and two towers. It let me decide that I wanted Mate instead of Cinnamon, and let me install to the machines right from the same TD. What an awesome Product.

    Reply

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