# Etcher says - it looks like this is not a bootable image; the image does not appear to contain a partition table **URL:** \ **Category:** balenaEtcher\ **Created:** [November 15, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432 "2018-11-15T15:15:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![malaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@malaga](https://forums.balena.io/u/malaga)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/1 "2018-11-15T15:15:27Z")
while creating an ISO on SD: Etcher says :: it looks like this is not a bootable image; the image does not appear to contain a partition table and mitht not be recognized or bootable by your device well - this makes me wonder. btw: first time i write to sd-cards. in earlier times i had to write images to DVD ---
**Author:** ![imrehg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/imrehg/32/36_2.png) [@imrehg](https://forums.balena.io/u/imrehg)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 7:24pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/2 "2018-11-15T19:24:31Z")
Hi @malaga What is the file you are trying to burn? Did the burn succeed anyways, and you see contents on the card, or there’s no burn done? ---
**Author:** ![mxr303](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8dc957/32.png) [@mxr303](https://forums.balena.io/u/mxr303)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/3 "2019-06-11T22:43:50Z")
I get the same error message when I try to burn a centos image to a USB stick. The image does flash okay but the USB won’t boot. The centos .iso file will start from Virtual Box. So I know the image is good…Based on other posts, it sounds like my iso image is missing the partition table. Just need to figure out how to add it. ---
**Author:** ![samothx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@samothx](https://forums.balena.io/u/samothx)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/4 "2019-06-11T23:16:46Z")
Hi, What version of Etcher are you using and on what platform ? If you trying to flash a downloaded file you could post a link to the file and we can take a look if we can reproduce the problem. Regards Thomas ---
**Author:** ![samothx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@samothx](https://forums.balena.io/u/samothx)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/5 "2019-06-11T23:23:47Z")
actually thinking about it, ISO images when designed for a CD do not necessarily need to contain a partition table. I am quite sure though that to boot from USB stick you will need one. Converting from one format to the other might not be trivial and you are probably better of downloading an image that is meant for flashing on a USB stick in contrast to being booted from CD. ---
**Author:** ![zrzka](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/zrzka/32/1612_2.png) [@zrzka](https://forums.balena.io/u/zrzka)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 7:34am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/8 "2019-06-12T07:34:55Z")
Hi, [Etcher documentation](https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md#why-is-my-drive-not-bootable) says: > Etcher copies images to drives byte by byte, without doing any transformation to the final device, which means images that require special treatment to be made bootable, like Windows images, will not work out of the box. In these cases, the general advice is to use software specific to those kind of images, usually available from the image publishers themselves. The image is copied to drive byte by byte without any modification. If your ISO image isn’t _hybrid_ (doesn’t contain partition, …), it won’t boot from the USB drive. I’d recommend to use Google with the _bootable USB drive from an ISO image_ phrase. Lot of results / ways how to do it on Linux, Windows and macOS. I also did ask the Etcher team if it’s something we have on our roadmap or not. ---
**Author:** ![zrzka](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/zrzka/32/1612_2.png) [@zrzka](https://forums.balena.io/u/zrzka)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 11:44am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/10 "2019-06-12T11:44:14Z")
Hi, got a response from the team and they shared this [issue](https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/210) you can track. For now, it’s not possible to achieve what you want with just balenaEtcher. And just to be sure, sharing again [Why is my drive not bootable](https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md#why-is-my-drive-not-bootable). ---
**Author:** ![Wasif](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@Wasif](https://forums.balena.io/u/Wasif)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/12 "2021-07-31T18:22:32Z")
[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO) click on 64-bit,and after downloading flash it with etcher,you will see the notification MISSING PARTITION TABLE Remember the problem happen with the latest version of etcher both in linux and windows(as I have tested) ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/16 "2021-08-09T20:56:29Z")
Hello @Wasif – As Windows is not currently supported as a proper flashing target, you may receive errors as you have noticed. We do have a GitHub issue for this, located here: [Support burning Windows images · Issue #210 · balena-io/etcher · GitHub](https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/210) Thanks for the report though! ---
**Author:** ![Why](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4bbf92/32.png) [@Why](https://forums.balena.io/u/Why)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 11:42am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/18 "2022-09-04T11:42:36Z")
Six years of development still can’t flash a windows image, just shows the dedication and quality of the work, keep it up guys! ---
**Author:** ![HelloWorld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b782af/32.png) [@HelloWorld](https://forums.balena.io/u/HelloWorld)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/etcher-says-it-looks-like-this-is-not-a-bootable-image-the-image-does-not-appear-to-contain-a-partition-table/4432/19 "2024-02-19T15:50:30Z")
Tell me about it