balenaEtcher imaging software having a do over?

Question

G'Day,

I chucked a SD memory card in the garbage after it continued to error out when I attempted to image it using Etcher 1.5.19 with a 2019-04-08-raspbian-stretch-full.img image file. Later I retrieved the SD card from the can after discovering if I switch img file and then try again with the original it worked. I have duplicated the issue on three different manufactures SD cards. I am using 32G memory cards. Maybe that is the issue......

Fail Scenario

image SD card with 2019-04-08-raspbian-stretch-full.img. Success

image SD card with 2019-04-08-raspbian-stretch-full.img. FAIL

Success scenario

image SD card with 2019-04-08-raspbian-stretch-full.img. Success

image SD card with 2019-04-08-raspbian-stretch-full.img. Fail

image SD card with 2019-04-08-raspbian-stretch-lite.img Success

image SD card with 2019-04-08-raspbian-stretch-full.img. Success

I recently upgraded etcher. I didn't experience this problem in the past. Curious has anyone else repeated this incident?

Sean

beacon_dave · Accepted Answer

I've not seen this behaviour happening with Etcher 1.5.24-x64 portable when flashing the 2019-04-08 build to 16GB microSDHC cards.

Although it may partly explain why my R-Pi3B appeared rather unstable with fresh images recently !

colporteur · Answer

G'Day,

I think your commentary were the bread crumbs I needed to find the path to the solution. I am on the third pass of making an image using the same card with software version 1.5.33 and it hasn't errored out.

It took some configuration foo in order to use the AppImage files provided through the distributor. I like simple solutions.

I am going to move this this Q/A to the A column and close it. Thanks again for you input.

“You can increase your problem-solving skills by honing your question-asking ability.” Michael J. Gelb

Sean

shabaz · Answer

I always use win32diskimager on win 10, it's been consistently reliable for me, whereas I have seen etcher fail on me in the past.