Etcher is easy-to-use, free and open source GUI software. Its primary function is to copy the image files of an OS to a micro SD card or to a USB drive.
Etcher is developed by Balena which is licensed under Apache 2.0. It’s available for- Windows, MAC, and Linux making it a true cross-platform tool with superior functionality and usability.
BalenaEtcher(formerly known as Etcher) simplifies everything to do with generating bootable USB drives or even Micro SD Cards.
It comes with a self-explanatory interface which has been developed using web technologies such as JS, HTML, node.js and Electron, which offers a strong competition to its conventional competitors like running dd command in the terminal, or using programs like Win32DiskImager etc.
| Name: | Etcher For PC |
| Size: | 59 MB |
| Compatibility: | Windows OS, macOS |
| Language: | English |
| Security: | Checked – Virus Free |
| Downloads: | 816172 |
Functions of Etcher:
It works on a process called ‘Flashing’ the SD card, which lets the user install a different version of the Operating System. Without etcher, this process is a bit more technical and intimidating for the newbies wherein the user would flash an SD card using a program called Terminal and a text command called DD.
- It breaks the entire complicated process of flashing an OS image file into three straight-forward steps:
Select Image, Select Drive, and Flash Image.
- Etcher, is a one-click bootable USB media creator, can really achieve its goal with a simple drag & drop from your selected folder to Balena.
- It will auto-detect for ISO type and configure the USB drive with correct options to let it boot from the BIOS menu.
- With Etcher, users don’t even have to unzip, just download the zipped image, select the downloaded package and then click the card on a User Interface to flash the Operating System to.
- It provides validated burning so that users do not burn on corrupted a USB drive or SD Card.
- It is also Hard-drive friendly where it automatically selects the drive to prevent a user from erasing the entire hard-drive.
- The application only looks for external storage devices such as USB sticks and SD Cards, if nothing is plugged in, it shows you to connect a drive.
- It also provides the crc32 checksum, which is used to detect if the data has been manipulated.
- Being a simple, compact and quick software, it is really a popular choice in the community for burning image files such as .img and .iso files, and mount zipped folders to create live SD cards and USB flash drives.
It is thus perfect for what it claims for. It doesn’t let you read another blogpost or watch any other tutorial to understand it’s working. It has been used to write over one million images to SD cards & USB drives till recently.
How to Download Etcher?
Ethcer on Windows
- Download Etcher for Windows.
- Double click the downloaded file and click on “Agree”.
- The installation will finish and Etcher software will load.
MacOS
- Download the MacOS version of Etcher software.
- Drag the downloaded file from Downloads folder to Applications folder.
- After the installation, the software will load.
Linux
- Download the Linux version of Etcher software.
- Open Terminal Window and type in the following commands.
cd Downloads
unzip etcher-electron-1.4.6-linux-x64.zip
chmod a+x Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage
./Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage - Your software is ready to run!
