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I tried making an Ubuntu bootable USB using Etcher, which basically rendered 2 brand-new 32GB drives totally useless (both now report RAW format) and no bootable Ubuntu. I followed the directions and do not want to destroy any more USB drives. How do I do this?

Even better - I'd love to just replace the Windows 10 on the laptop outright with Ubuntu - forget dual boot. But it seems I still need to make a bootable USB to do that. I have a DVD burner on the laptop, but I can't possibly fit a 5GB image on a 4.7GB disk.

BTW, I followed the "how to get your USB drive back" suggestions here, all to no avail. They're just totally dead now.

Help appreciated.

Bruce Decker
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2 Answers2

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Personally, I use Ventoy or Ubuntu's Startup Disk Creator for this task. Ventoy is particularly useful if you do not have an Ubuntu instance running (because you are running Windows for example) since it allows the user to poke any number of iso files on to the same stick by simply copying the file to it even to the extent that the iso can be copied directly to the USB stick whereas Startup Disk Creator takes over the whole device when you need to create a bootable device. Further, other utilities can also be copied to a Ventoy device which could be used during a live session such as the DD utility (and others) to assist in repairing a defective system.

This is the link to Ventoy for downloading and this is an It's FOSS tutorial on how to do it.

I have used both Ventoy and Startup Disk Creator to very good effect. Like you, my only experience with Etcher was a failure.

graham
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To recover your disks, on Windows, run Diskpart in terminal. Put the disk/USB into the computer take out all others, then run:

> list disk 
# if you have any other disks, they will show up here
> select disk 1
# this selects the selects the second disk, you can change it
> clear 
> partition new primary

Partition new primary may not be right, I cant check because I am not at Windows. Back to OP's question, you can use many alternatives like Rufus.

Brendon
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