Anyone know if any tools besides Rufus can successfully write the Zorin 17.3 ISO to a USB stick? I tried Balena Etcher twice on macOS and Popsicle once on Pop OS and both of those tools thought that they had written the ISO to the stick but, they would just boot to a grub prompt. Finally used Rufus on Win11 and it gave some message about some file it needed to download first and then it proceeded to make a usable USB stick from the Zorin 17.3 ISO file.
Many of us here on the forums recommend Ventoy or Rufus. None of us recommend Balena Etcher anymore, for a variety of reasons, not least of which are problems like you had. I personally use Ventoy for everything but Windows ISOs, where i use Rufus.
1 Like
You could try the Fedora Media Writer. With that You can write an ISO on a USB Stick, too. And it isn't only for Fedora. You can use any other ISO, too. The only Benefit is, that You wouldn't need a Fedora ISO because the Tool can download this. For any other System You need the already downloaded ISO.
Another Tool would be Ventoy. With that, you can have multiple ISO on Your USB Stick depending from Your Storage Space.
I like Rufus , too. But unfortunately there doesn't exist a Linux Version of it - which I find very sad. But when You have Windows, it is a great Tool.
1 Like
I really wouldn't recommend B Etcher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDVKQ4C8-0
Ventoy is great! You can have multiple Linux and Windows OSs and switch between them whenever you want. Here's a quick guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10L8aCY3VBs
2 Likes
Although you got Rufus to work; it sounds like there was an underlying issue here.
What got my attention was that you reported that Popsicle had failed.
For bootable media like a Zorin OS .iso, these are hybrid .iso images. I know Popsicle has stronger support for these types of files than Balena Etcher.
Balena Etcher uses raw block-level copying of the ISO which can result in GRUB dropping to a prompt if UEFI boot files are missing or not properly detected.
MBR/EFI is hybrid, as well.
While this is not a common occurrence, it is common enough; usually easily resolved by using Ventoy, Rufus or using dd commands in terminal - those with stronger Hybrid .iso image writing.
But there are other options than just switching etchers. Aside from using dd commands on GnuLinux or MacOS, you can use Gnome Disks application to create the bootable medium without installing an etcher.
(Scroll down to To use Gnome Disks)
If on MacOS; try initially formating the USB drive with mkfs.vfat
If on Windows OS or GnuLinux, try formatting to FAT32.
Formatting the USb Stick first can prevent these issues, due to unformatted sticks having a much higher potential for corruption during write process.
2 Likes