# Can Etcher flash an image and preserve other files on the drive?

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/can-etcher-flash-an-image-and-preserve-other-files-on-the-drive/4798>\
**Category:** balenaEtcher\
**Created:** [December 23, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/can-etcher-flash-an-image-and-preserve-other-files-on-the-drive/4798 "2018-12-23T00:10:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dandv](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dandv/32/1426_2.png) [@dandv](https://forums.balena.io/u/dandv)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/can-etcher-flash-an-image-and-preserve-other-files-on-the-drive/4798/1 "2018-12-23T00:10:01Z")

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UNetBootin can flash an image onto a drive without wiping out the entire drive. This is very useful for larger capacity flash drives that contain user data, when the user only wants to flash another ISO and not delete everything else.

Is there a way to do this with Etcher?

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**Author:** ![thundron](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/thundron/32/1379_2.png) [@thundron](https://forums.balena.io/u/thundron)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/can-etcher-flash-an-image-and-preserve-other-files-on-the-drive/4798/2 "2018-12-26T13:46:44Z")

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Since Etcher flashes byte-to-byte (i.e. like `dd` does), it’s impossible for it to preserve anything that lies on the flashed target as of now.

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**Author:** ![dandv](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dandv/32/1426_2.png) [@dandv](https://forums.balena.io/u/dandv)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/can-etcher-flash-an-image-and-preserve-other-files-on-the-drive/4798/3 "2018-12-30T23:58:39Z")

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Thanks for clarifying that. Where can one read about a comparison between Etcher and prior art tools? I’m particularly interested in UNetBootIn, which can preserve existing files, and Startup Disc Creator, which comes installed by default with many distros,

Honestly curious, because I haven’t had a need for Etcher until trying to install Pop\_OS!, which despite my efforts for the past weeks, has [not yet succeeded](https://github.com/pop-os/docs/issues/63#issuecomment-447546312).