BalenaEtcherPRO SD Cards not working after cloning

Product support
1

We have been using the BalenaEtcherPro for approximately a year now to clone custom-made software onto SD cards, allowing us to run them on a Raspberry PI. However, recently we have encountered an issue where cloned SD cards no longer function properly. The software fails to operate on the Raspberry Pi after being cloned. Interestingly, when I manually write the software onto each SD card using the BalenaEtcher software on my laptop, the software runs without any issues.

We are puzzled by this problem and would appreciate any insights into its possible causes and solutions.

2

Hello @Jordi thank you for your message and welcome to the balena community.

When you flash the SD cards with the Etcher Pro do you get any error? What image file are you trying to clone?

Let me share this message with the Etcher Pro team to try to fix this. Let’s stay connected!

5

We are cloning an SD card containing a bootable file. However, once BalenaEtcherPro completes the process and I use the cloned SD card, it doesn’t boot up at all.

1 Like
6

While we’re waiting on the etcher pro team , just a few more questions that might help them when they see this:

  • is this happening every time you try to flash SD cards with this image?
  • is it happening to sd cards in every slot
  • does it happen when say, only 1 sd card is in the device
  • has there been any other recent changes you know of? Change to the image that you are flashing, different SD cards etc?
  • Are there any errors shown on the etcher pro display when flashing?
  • if you take one of the SD cards that were flashed by the etcher pro and tried to mount it with your laptop to examine the content, what is one there? Has anything been written?

Thanks

7

To provide answers to your questions:

  • Yes, this occurs every time I try to flash an SD card with the same image.
  • It happens with every SD card in the device, regardless of the slot the card is inserted into.
  • It also occurs even when there’s only one SD card in the device.
  • No, the software that needs to be flashed has remained the same since 2020.
  • The Etcher software itself does not display any error messages.
  • When I insert an SD card from Etcher into my laptop, I can see the bootable file, confirming that the flash was successful. Unfortunately, when I insert the SD card into a Raspberry Pi and start it up, the software does not run automatically as it should.
11

Hi, Has this been resolved, I am seeing the same issue with Balena etcher pro, running v1.14.3. All SD cards will verify ok, but when I put them in a Raspberry pi, they have not flashed correctly. If I flash them on my PC they work fine.

12

That is, flash them with Balena Etcher on my PC

13

Hello @robc let me check internally what happens here!

Let’s stay connected

1 Like
14

Im experiencing the same issue as the above with he Etcher pro.

15

@kostikar could you please help here?

16

Hello @DeanD , please email us about your issue at store@balena.io , also please include your order reference number and device serial number (if visible).

1 Like
17

Ive sent all the documentation we received upon purchasing thank you!