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This software allows you to quickly create bootable flash drives and live SD cards

This software allows you to quickly create bootable flash drives and live SD cards

Vote: (75 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Balena

Version: 1.7.9

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(75 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

Balena

1.7.9

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • Writes ISO files in just three steps
  • Works with most open-source OS images
  • Supports both SD and USB-based flash media

Cons

  • Lacks a drive display list
  • Doesn't support certain types of image files

The Electron-based balenaEtcher utility allows you to write image files directly to an external piece of storage media. It supports both ISO and IMG files, so you'll probably be able to get most file systems written to a drive that you'd ever want to. While it doesn't include support for some of the more esoteric types of images, these aren't commonly used in the PC world so you probably won't even have to worry about them.

Those that do can normally convert a file then load it in balenaEtcher without any difficulty. In most cases, the software should prove remarkably flexible in this respect. Power users who need to create boot media for their mobile devices can even write zipped folders to blank media. That's useful for times when you download a custom ROM header from a PC and need to figure out a way to get it onto your phone.

Etcher can create live SD, microSD and USB media. Keep in mind that anything you write an ISO to is going to be erased in the process. While users could theoretically damage files this way, it's rather unlikely since you're always given the option to take a look at what's on a drive before you write to it. The developer encourages users to either turn to a directory listing or File Explorer before committing a write to their drive.

Since the app is built with the newer Electron framework, it looks remarkably modern. This framework includes a mix of JavaScript, HTML and Node.js code. As a result, the app has been ported to several different platforms. You might want to run the same version on your PC that you do on other systems if you're working in any kind of mixed operating environment.

The basic package runs on Windows, but it doesn't just support Windows-based images. Those who are looking to explore or maintain other operating systems are free to write GNU/Linux images to their drives. In fact, there is at least some degree of limited support for those created on macOS, so you might find that it's a perfect tool for IS departments that need to maintain a wide variety of computers without ever leaving their PCs.

Balena is named for the old Resin.io platform, which means users have the benefits of all the bug testing that went into developing that plus the Etcher app itself. That translates into an impressively low rate of errors among those who use stable flash memory to accept the ISO files that they're writing.

Best of all, Etcher works graphically. While users can opt for a command line interface if they prefer, there's no reason that they need to do so. The app can instead work with nothing more than a traditional Windows-style friendly interface.

More than likely, that's not going to seem all that impressive to people who are used to working solely with productivity software. An overwhelming majority of file system imaging utilities are at least partially based on the command line, however, so this represents a major step forward.

Pros

  • Writes ISO files in just three steps
  • Works with most open-source OS images
  • Supports both SD and USB-based flash media

Cons

  • Lacks a drive display list
  • Doesn't support certain types of image files