New to linux, external hard drive wont let me download after balena etcher

[Boreas2000]

Having some issues and any help given really needs to be in laymans terms. New to linux

Got a 2TB hard drive and used balena etcher to flash the iso on it (i know its a large amount but the 2TB was the only hard drive I’ve had, and really wanted to switch to linux because privacy on windows isn’t good.)

Let the whole process complete didnt interrupt it or anything.

Used the 2tb hard drive to install EndOs iso

Try to download something to it and it wont let me
Look up multiple fixes and nothings working

Really lost at what to do, especially because im running out of my internal hard drive space from steam summer sale.

When checking im told the external hard drive has 1.7 TB of storage space that is open and can be used so i don’t really know what the problem is.

[dalto]

If you flashed an ISO to it, you need to reformat it so you can use it again.

Install gparted, partitionmanager or gnome-disk-utility to have a GUI you can use to do this.

Also, welcome to the forum!

[HMS_Endeavour]

Hello @Boreas2000 and welcome to the wonderful world of

[smokey]

As @dalto said you will need to format the hard drive again. Also welcome to Endeavour OS

[Boreas2000]

Thank you all for your help, and thank you so much for the warm welcome! everything went fine and i can now use my 2TB for steam games and everything is running smoothly. Thank you all for the help, and thank you for treating someone new to linux with such kindness!

[dalto]

Please feel free to ask questions as they come up. That is what we are here for!

[sradjoker]

@dalto

If you flashed an ISO to it, you need to reformat it so you can use it again.

why is this the case? Isn’t etcher supposed to do the formatting by itself?

[pebcak]

Glad to hear you got it all working!

Welcome to the community @Boreas2000!

[dalto]

@sradjoker

why is this the case? Isn’t etcher supposed to do the formatting by itself?

It doesn’t matter if it formats it or not because it writes the ISO to it.

If you want to then use it for general use, you need to format it with a writable file system.

[Kresimir]

@Boreas2000

etcher

Welcome to the forum! Don’t use etcher, it’s rubbish:

Heads up on Etcher

I was just surfing docs, while you mention excellent methods for creating usb installers in there, including GUI ones… https://endeavouros.com/docs/installation/create-install-media-usb-stick/ I need to raise awareness, that there was huge problem with Balena Etcher privacy reported somewhere on Manjaro forums lounge about a year ago (don’t have access now, so can’t find source - but it was confirmed and removed from Manjaro .iso as well). Surely you can still find a lot of that on internet, …

[HMS_Endeavour]

@Kresimir

Don’t use etcher, it’s rubbish:

Agreed. I use dd

[Kresimir]

dd is great, of course, I use that, too. However, on windoze (which was OP’s original OS), it’s not the most convenient of utilities.

The installation guide on the wiki suggests using USBWriter or Rufus.

[HMS_Endeavour]

@Kresimir

However, on windoze (which was OP’s original OS), it’s not the most convenient of utilities.

You are right of course. I tend to forget about Windows or anything M$ related

@Kresimir

The installation guide on the wiki suggests using USBWriter or Rufus.

Out of those I would use USBWriter.

[chromian]

@Boreas2000

Used the 2tb hard drive to install EndOs iso

Talk about extraordinary measures!

Also, welcome to the community!

[ricklinux]

Nothing wrong with etcher. Never ever had an issue with it! I only use it on Windoze now because on EndeavourOS i use popsicle. I would never use Rufus and i don’t use dd. Etcher worked for me also on EndeavourOS until i switched to popsicle.

[sradjoker]

I use Ventoy both on windows and linux. Works well in both.

[HMS_Endeavour]

@ricklinux

popsicle

it does sound delicious, will have to try one

[ricklinux]

Specially in the heat!

[HMS_Endeavour]

It’s hot all year round here so it’s always popsicle tiime