Tip of the Day: BalenaEtcher to make Bootable SD Cards and USB Drives

John’s Tip of the Day is BalenaEtcher a free software tool which makes bootable SD Cards and USB Drives. This is very handy if you want to try out different distros of Linux or other operating systems for your computer. At NoAgendaFun we’ve used BalenaEtcher to make bootable SD Cards for our Raspberry Pi and can vounch it’s a fantastic tool!

John: So my tip of the day is not to buy a Beelink…

Adam: It’s an anti-tip of the day!

John: So what I did was I decided to…

Adam: hold on a second. Even though we didn’t have official tips of the day, without a doubt, Beelink at one point would have been a tip of the day. You were telling everybody, “Oh, you gotta get the Beelink. It’s great.”

John: Well, it’s a cheap little computer that works—until it doesn’t. And so, I mean, I’m still just hanging in there, but I decided I’m going to run Linux on this thing and see if I can do it. But then I said, well, you know, I want to run live Linux.

Adam: So just stick in that USB stick and make it run.

John: Okay, if you want to run a live anything, you get the ISO, which is the image. ISO stands for something—I don’t remember what. Image something. Is it the image of the disk? Of the disk… But you want to run it, you want to make it bootable. And so, you want to make a live version. For example, I have an ISO of Linux that I could run—Mint. Mint Linux. I think it’s up to version 24 or something. It’s ridiculous. They still haven’t got any good audio stuff, which is weird.

You need to get a copy of this—this is a handy product anyway. It’s called Balena Etcher.

So that’s my tip of the day. Get a copy of Balena Etcher. It’s for USB. It can also burn a disk, but it’s mainly for making live USBs, which is the easiest way to do it.

Adam: You know, it’s great. I’m going to add to your tip. You can actually then take your computer with you, and wherever you are, you just say, “Hey, can I just borrow your computer?” Bam! You jack that stick in there, you change the boot order, and there’s your computer back!

John: First of all, you have to go into the guy’s system and change the boot order, which is insulting. Is it not insulting? But yes, you can do exactly what Adam said. But Balena Etcher is the way to make these—it’s the best way, at least currently. There are other systems that do this. I used something else before, but it’s a good way to do it.

It’s called “live” because it boots from the stick. You don’t have to install it on the machine. Because if I…

Adam: I was going to say, what is the advantage of using the live, according to you as the tip monster?

John: That way, when you take the stick out, then it goes back to the old operating system. You still have everything. You still have all your old stuff intact.

Adam: So, what happened to your Beelink that you decided to go this way?

John: I’m getting a story. I think it’s the… whether it’s the Beelink itself—probably not the Beelink itself—as opposed to the SSD that is failing.

Adam: So what you’re saying, this is a tip: when your crappy old machine craps out, you can still bring it back to life with a live Linux USB.

John: Yeah, or you could run Windows off the little USB too, if you wanted to.

Adam: Oh no, no, no. Is there a live Windows?

John: You can make it with… you can make a live Windows if you want.

Adam: Whatever you do, don’t make a live Windows stick, people. Get your Balena Etcher. That’s what you want.

Download the BalenaEtcher software here.

[No Agenda # 1757]