Failure to Flash Tails to USB [Windows 10]

balenaEtcher
1

Hello,

 My operating system is Windows 10. I am using the installer version of Etcher (v1.5.116) to flash Tails OS (tails-amd64-4.16) onto a 16GB flash drive. I have formatted the thumb drive using file systems FAT32 (default on the drive), exFAT, and NTFS but the flash has continued to fail. Below is my latest error report using FAT32.

Wed Mar 10 2021 13:11:13 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time) SafeWebview loaded ({“event”:{“id”:21,“url”:“https://www.balena.io/etcher/success-banner/?borderTop=false&darkBackground=true&etcher-version=1.5.116&api-version=2&optOutAnalytics=false",“method”:“GET”,“timestamp”:1615403473126.729,“resourceType”:“mainFrame”,“ip”:“2600:1f18:2489:8200:32de:9a3c:e401:d649”,“fromCache”:false,“statusLine”:"HTTP/1.1 200”,“statusCode”:200,“responseHeaders”:{“age”:[“9787”],“cache-control”:[“public, max-age=0, must-revalidate”],“content-encoding”:[“br”],“content-length”:[“6041”],“content-type”:[“text/html; charset=UTF-8”],“date”:[“Wed, 10 Mar 2021 16:29:06 GMT”],“etag”:["“c298b4f9081fad3f69dd15f3220d9999-ssl-df”"],“link”:["</webpack-runtime-6dd3e65b41cbde0459f8.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </styles-c4fa86dfd4ad05097eee.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </framework-149d8dfa392460762009.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </50c25a04-a68e3217d6ce65727bd7.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </73ad3401-ecb0d3613fde52e78ca5.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </532a2f07-f1ad28da1825cfcce2c7.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </app-148e69e92c3082e2f140.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </c943faba-f859f80ceb7f4f7eab31.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </af13d906-36fdbc23fc7dd2f2b2e7.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </ec1189df-f1a321eba12a2bb0c7ab.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </a9a7754c-29508ff4045f1f93a5f6.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </commons-b3fb9651c57d1d917e54.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </component—src-pages-etcher-success-banner-js-0a6ab80bc309b84cac96.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </page-data/app-data.json>; rel=preload; as=fetch; crossorigin, </page-data/etcher/success-banner/page-data.json>; rel=preload; as=fetch; crossorigin"],“referrer-policy”:[“strict-origin-when-cross-origin”],“server”:[“Netlify”],“status”:[“200”],“strict-transport-security”:[“max-age=31536000”],“vary”:[“Accept-Encoding”],“x-content-type-options”:[“nosniff”],“x-frame-options”:[“DENY”],“x-nf-request-id”:[“5a10a44d-467d-4b0c-bf92-3636538aeddb-18594387”],“x-xss-protection”:[“1; mode=block”]},“referrer”:"",“error”:“net::OK”},“sample”:0.1,“applicationSessionUuid”:“ce48f8e8-6d4a-4e37-ba09-911208feb7a4”,“flashingWorkflowUuid”:“7ac7624c-06d2-4cb7-b335-9c189c9aaade”})

Thanks in advance!

P.S. I’m not 100% sure I sent the correct logging output. If not, please let me know where to find it in the DevTools

2

Hello @flashyfish,

Thanks for reporting this in. Let’s see if we can get you sorted out.

I was able to replicate flashing Tails OS to a 32GB SD card using the latest Etcher on Win10 fine. My colleagues have told me that sometimes when users turn up their Windows Firewall and Security profile settings, it can sometimes get in the way of flashing.

Have you tried using the portable version of Etcher? You can get it by visiting balenaEtcher - Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives , but then clicking the “down arrow” on the download pill and selecting Etcher for Windows (Portable). Please try that and let us know if this helps!

1 Like
4

Thank you for such a quick reply! I have temporarily disabled any security features that may be affecting the process. Does it matter if my flash drive’s file system is FAT32 or NTFS?

5

SUCCESS!
I was a bit hesitant when you recommended temporarily disabling my firewall and security features, but the .img flashed without a hitch on my FAT32 thumb drive.

Thank you for your assistance, andrewnhem :))

Have a nice day!

6

@flashyfish,

Glad to hear that it helped!

Does it matter if my flash drive’s file system is FAT32 or NTFS?

You’ll want to make sure your medium is formatted for whatever device you’ll be inserting it into.

Don’t forget to turn your security settings back up :slight_smile:

You have a great day, too. Best of luck on your project and thanks for using balenaEtcher.

8

Hi, I am able to flash the tails os in my pendrive probably and able to boot from it too. But the problem is Etcher while verifying it shows it as failed.

Can you please tell me a solution as I am recording a video on how to install it properly but the flash failed message is causing a little problem at my end.

Edit: I have already tried the disabling of the windows defender