# USB flash drive damaged after using Etcher

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/usb-flash-drive-damaged-after-using-etcher/4846>\
**Category:** balenaEtcher\
**Tags:** support\
**Created:** [December 28, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/usb-flash-drive-damaged-after-using-etcher/4846 "2018-12-28T15:43:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sergiocgii](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/sergiocgii/32/1440_2.png) [@sergiocgii](https://forums.balena.io/u/sergiocgii)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/usb-flash-drive-damaged-after-using-etcher/4846/1 "2018-12-28T15:43:03Z")

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On the recommendation of Linux Mint, I tried using Etcher to make a USB bootable. But, the unit was damaged.

To recover the USB, I used the Windows 10 Disk Manager. I selected the damaged drive, then “New Simple Volume”. I followed the steps of the wizard by selecting partition size, disk letter assignment and formatting (I chose FAT32).

That way I recovered my USB drive.

I read this same error in several posts in this forum, and no one from Balena responded by giving any solution.

I will definitely not use Etcher again.

It’s safer Rufus.

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**Author:** ![thundron](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/thundron/32/1379_2.png) [@thundron](https://forums.balena.io/u/thundron)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/usb-flash-drive-damaged-after-using-etcher/4846/2 "2019-01-07T12:31:56Z")

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That’s because there’s no solution - Etcher doesn’t “damage” nor break nor corrupt sdcards, it’s usually just that some users don’t understand that flashing an OS on a usb/sdcard/… makes it usually (and I’d also say **obviously** ) not readable by the OS you’re working on, but you will still see it with other reading tools.  
I suggest reading through our [User Documentation](https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md) in case your situation listed there.  
I’d also like to know what you mean by “damaged” and I understand your frustration, but with some patience we can figure this out. Otherwise, we’ll still be here to help if needed!

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**Author:** ![solos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@solos](https://forums.balena.io/u/solos)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/usb-flash-drive-damaged-after-using-etcher/4846/5 "2019-12-22T15:44:31Z")

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the “unreadable” key is not allways the case f.i windows 7 iso on Imac relusts in an imac readable stick  
( but iMac will read all fat32 media )