Hello, I am new to etcher, and I have a couple of questions.
How long does it normally take to validate a large image?
Also, do I actually require the micro SD Card to be validated or can I just cancel the validation, and use the card?
It is at 50% validating and has taken over 12 hours…Is this normal???
Thank you in advance.
Hello, the time it takes to validate the image can vary depending on various factors, although I would say that it should not take more than the time it took to write the image (usually less). 12 hours seems to be a lot regardless, if there are issues with the validation this can be the signal of issues with the underlying SD card. I would suggest you try burn the image on a different SD card if you have that available.
Having said all this: you should be able to cancel the validation and still use the card; as I said: problems with validation can be symptoms of other issues with the SD card, so it might still not function properly.
thank you,
I would not turn off verification as it’s job is to check errors like this. You can disable it in the option in the Mac version but to be honest I check it’s turned on every tine I install the new version 
I know this topic is 2 years old but I see no resolution and I am experiencing the same issue. The SD card is brand new as were the 2 ext HDD I also tried. Writing a 500GB img and the write takes about 10 hours, which is long, but ok. The VERIFY, however, is estimated in minutes equal to 50 hours. I have done this 4 times on 3 devices now, the 4th a repeat time. No errors during the write. The verify on the current run I am trying to allow to complete, has now been running over 24 hours and is at 48%. The speed is a steady 2.60MB/s (VERY SLOW). The machine doing the processing is a powerful gaming laptop i7 latest, 16GB RAM, etc. I previously stopped the verification and the drive/card was useless (read as blank). Trying to let it complete but will need another 24+ hours. CPU in use at about 1% or less so it is barely working.
Hello,
A 500gb image in 10 hours indicates a 14mb/s write speed, which is on the slow side, but for an older HDD (especially over USB dongle) it might be reasonable. Verification step should be a lot faster, in general if the verification is that slow, it indicates there’s a problem with the drive. Skipping the verification step will have no effect on the written data, you just won’t know if it the write was completed properly.
Which version of etcher are you using?
Please ensure you’re using the latest version of the app: balenaEtcher - Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives