Yesterday using Windows 11, I tried flashing two usb with balenaEtcher per the official instructions and it killed both of them.
- Diskpart recognized them, but refused to clean them with error 5@0101000F.
- Tried to use AOMEI Partition Assistant, recognized again, wiped clean (filled with zeroes) and even assigned a letter to it, but neither showed up in windows explorer (despite being wiped clean, single partition and letter assigned)
After 30 minutes of thinking, I managed to recover them by plugging them to my Android using a usb-c to usb-a adapter. Android sees there's a problem with the usb and offers to format it, 10 seconds later is ready and Windows sees them again.
Just for the sake of it, I tried it again this morning with the same result: Usb dead and revovered with Android shortly after. If balenaEtcher is really killing in the name of I would suggest maybe editing the official instructions because most begginers (like me) are likely to use them.
Hope it helps someone!