# Etcher Etcher (also called balenaEtcher) is the tool I reach for whenever I need to write an OS image onto an SD card or a USB drive. Free, open-source, and it runs the same on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The reason I keep coming back to it: it's basically impossible to screw up. Three steps and you're done. 1. Pick the image (`.iso`, `.img`, even a zipped one — no need to extract first) 2. Pick the drive 3. Hit Flash That's it. No cryptic options, no command line, no dd horror stories where you nuke the wrong disk. Etcher only shows you removable drives by default, so you won't accidentally overwrite your system disk. And it validates the write afterwards, so you actually know the card is good before you go plug it into a Raspberry Pi and wonder why nothing boots. ## Installing it on Windows The easiest way, by far, is [[Winget]]: ``` winget install -e --id Balena.Etcher ``` One line, no clicking through installers, no hunting for the download button on the website. ## When I use it - Flashing Raspberry Pi OS (or any distro) onto an SD card - Making a bootable Linux USB stick - Anything where the alternative is fiddling with `dd` or Rufus and I just want it to work ## References - Website: https://etcher.balena.io/ - Made by Balena ## Related - [[Winget]]