Need I format or create new partition table on a USB drive before using Etcher?

balenaEtcher
1

Hello. I regularly use Etcher for making Linux USBs. I was wondering, is there any preparation that needs to be done to the USB drive before starting the flashing process? Please consider the following circumstances as examples:

  1. The USB drive already has a Linux distro.
  2. The USB drive already has a Windows OS.
  3. The USB drive has a different type of partition table.
  4. The USB drive is corrupted (maybe corrupted data or a broken partition table) from a previous action (e.g. removing unsafely).
  5. The USB drive was last used to make an OS installation drive using another program (say the program is unknown and might have done unknown actions to the drive).
  6. I have no idea what is inside the USB drive and I have not checked (I at least know that it is not a USB killer and there is no important data on it).

In the cases mentioned above, is there anything that needs to be done to the USB drive before using Etcher?

Is there any situation at all where I might need to prepare the USB drive in some way before using Etcher?

Thanks.

2

Hey, there should be no prior preparation required for a USB drive to be flashed by Etcher.

4

Okay, just to confirm, no prior preparation required no matter what the USB drive has gone through before (considering there is no hardware problem)?

6

No preparation needed, no matter what.

8

Thank you very much!