Any USB writer other than Balena Etcher?

Might be a difference between microSD card and USB stick.
I think the writing mechanism is not exactly the same.

In Windows, when you right click on the iso file, you will see "mount" in the drop down list. This will mount iso file as if it is a CD/DVD.
If this function is not working, then there might be something wrong with the Windows itself.

Statistical Probabilities. :wink:

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What do you think of my theory about a difference between SD card and USB stick?

It's certainly possible. I think we are all mystified about Balena ... which is why it remains unfixed.

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I remember at the beggingbeginning, Etcher was promoted as a microSD writer for Raspberry Pi OS (called Raspbian at the beggingbeginning). There was no easy way to write .img file to SD card in Linux with GUI and I had to use Windows software just for that.
The writing algorism is optimised for SD cards? I am just guessing.

In any case if OP cannot mount iso file in Windows, I think the problem is not Zorin nor writing software.

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I think @FrenchPress is like me suffereing lack of spell checker on the forum.
I assume "begging" should read "beginning" :smiley: as in "once upon a time"

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Yes, this must be right. I can speak for only SD cards. USB sticks must be a different story.

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Actually, you can enable the spellchecker in Firefox (it is built-in).
I am using it but since "begging" is a correct spelling of another word, it did not get picked.

Fixed.

If only Popsicle was available for Windows users. Most APPS for windows have an area where they do well, and areas where they don't do well, or they simply just don't even work. With Popsicle, how is a beginner going to screw it up?

Unlike Rufus or Unetbootin which have many options to choose from where a user could screw it up, Popsicle is like the least complicated of them all, like I've said, a monkey could probably do it lol.

It has a very simplified layout, there isn't a whole lot you gotta know to use it, you are not served endless questions, its light weight, hash checker built in, it doesn't make bad burns, it just works. If it was available for Windows users, I would recommend it every time.

@FrenchPress Ha Ha. Well you have done half the job. :wink:

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Oops.
I fixed it.

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Didn't realize so many people had trouble with Etcher. First time I used it it hosed a 32 gig drive I've had on my keychain forever. I figured maybe it was just bad luck or just time for that drive to go, but I guess Etcher may have had something to do with it. I spent a couple of hours trying to save it. Then I looked at the prices of usb sticks and realized I could probably afford a new one. Been a happy Rufus user ever since.

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For your reference - welcome to the party.

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Man I am over whelmed at all the responses. I do appreciate every one. But after some careful checking and doing some investigating myself, I kept coming back to the error that said right at 500GB, wasn't enough room to work with a less than 4 GB file. So i flipped it over and removed the HDD, cleaned the contacts, with compressed air and reinserted it making sure it was properly seated.
Turned it back on, and it worked. I have it installed, but that leads me to another major problem, that I have had with r distro's, so i know it's my pc, but I'll post another thread here, and at Dell just to see what I can come up with. Thanks again.

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Ah, so the problem was physical.
Good for you that you managed to fix it :slight_smile:

We are all here to give you a hand.
Do not hesitate to start a new thread if you need other help from us :slight_smile:

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Believe it or not, this is a common problem among system builders. Take RAM chips for example, they are technically inserted, they appear to be well seated, but are they? A lot of time memory problems can be fixed by simply remove the sticks and re-inserting them, hence the term, reseating RAM. The same can be said about the graphics card.

In your specific case, it sounds like the contacts were just dusty, or possibly slightly corroded, making contact not proper. BTW, for future reference, I have a cleaning technique for metal contact that you might like. I use a product called Deoxit, works wonders. Its a lubricator and cleaner all in one.

But its much safer then WD-40, because unlike WD, Deoxit won't eat your PCB's rubbers, and plastics. Deoxit cleans, lubricates, and deoxifies the corrosion, hence its name. Its commonly used to clean potentiometers, like volume knocks on stereo's for example.

Canned air also works wonders in cleaning the dust away. You did a great job, I am so proud of you! You are positively stellar! :star2:

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That is why I build my own computer :slight_smile:

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Back in the 1990's I built pc's for other people, I had a place I could get used dell desktop cases for almost nothing, and then I custom built it based on what the buyer wanted. If they wanted to watch movies, or strictly webbrowsing, or office type work, I customized the processor, ram, network adapters, to maximize their experience, and I made good money at it.

But I developed some serious health problems, that put a stop to everything, it was 12 to 15 years before I felt like doing it again, and between the health problems, and the medications, I am just not able to think clearly enough to do things anymore. Which makes me worried about switching to Linux, since so much is cli not gui, and keeping all the commands straight seems impossible. I bought a notebook, and I"m writing any new commands down, so when I need something I can just look it up. But I refuse to use W11, I did some of the beta testing on it, and my feedback was there is a need for change, or an organism dies, but change for the sake of change, is never a good thing. W11 is going to be as bad or worse than Vista or W8. I used Zorin back during the Vista 8 days, I think it was like Z-6 or something close, so I came back. But trying to build a pc today, there is no way I could keep all those little but super important things straight, I would mix frequencies on the processor and M-B, and ram, and it would just explode, at least catch fire.

Edit: This is what I highlighted, I don't know why it ohly posted the smiley?????

I did not try to mount it that way in Windows, but All six of the writers I downloaded would write all six of the iso's except the Zorin. I am commenting after I fixed the problem of dirty connections on the HDD.