I tried to make a Linux mint boot disk with balena etcher which it failed to do and on top of that it encrypted the usb. If I try to open the usb it doesnt ask for a password or anything, its just locked.
It even locked the laptop I was trying to dual boot the linux on.
However the usb is not bitlocker encrypted, nor is it a boot disk or a read only. How can I remove this encryption?
Hi @Waltterim I’d recommend checking and applying some of the techniques here: Etcher broke my USB stick … or did it?
Etcher doesn’t encrypt USB sticks 
If your on Windows @Waltterim, can you see it on Disk Management? If yes, can you format it from there? If you can’t, I’d recommend a 3rd-party application like Rufus to reformat it by setting the boot selection to “non-bootable.” This worked for me when i couldn’t open my usb and Disk Management/diskpart couldn’t format it.