Error "ended unexpectedly" when writing Micro SD card

balenaEtcher
1

I’m trying to flash a Raspbian image to a 32GB Micro-SD card using Balena Etcher v1.5.63 running on a Windows 8.1 PC. I have inserted the card into an SD to Micro-SD adapter and inserted it into my card reader slot. I have run Etcher and selected the ZIP file for the image I want to flash, and the SD card, and clicked Flash. I said OK to the permission window that popped up . After a brief pause I get this error message http://www.sylvesterbradley.org\images\BalenaEtcherIssue200220a.png.

What am I doing wrong? How do I write this image to a card?

Thanks - Rowan

2

Hey, if you can press “ctrl+shift+i” on the etcher window it will pop open a window with debug info, if you then attempt the write you should see some messages appear in that window - if you could copy/paste those that would be great

4

The log is attached (well, I uploaded it, but I can’t see where the forum system has put it. I suppose it’s here somewhere…). Although I can’t see any errors in it, the Etcher window said after this attempt “Flash complete! - 1 failed device”. If I try to look at the supposedly written card using Windows Explorer, it says “Please insert a disk into Removable Disk (G:)”, just as it does if there is no card in the slot. What does this mean? Ought I to be able to see the files in Windows Explorer?

Thanks - Rowan

5

Hi Rowan, The log doesn’t seem to have made it through. Could you please try again? (Or failing that, paste it). Thanks

7

Pasting it was the first thing I tried, but the forum said that it was much too large.

What is meant to happen to a file that I upload?

I have now put it on my own website, and you should be able to see it at http://sylvesterbradley.org/docs/EtcherLog200220.txt.

Thanks - Rowan

8

Hi Rowan,

  • When you flash a Raspbian image to and sd card, Windows will only see the first partition (boot) as it is the only filesystem it on it that it understands (fat32).
  • I think etcher “ejects” the SD card after flashing, so you might need to unplug it and plug it again in order to see it.
  • In your log file I see that the verification failed. It means that when etcher read the contents of the sd card it just flashed, the checksum did not match the checksum of the disk image. In general it means that the SD card has issues, please try flashing to another SD card. I also remember a user having verification errors because Windows was somehow modifying the contents on the SD card before the verification ended.