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Hi.
I have the same problem. The first time I could flash a sd card. After the third time, and the next times , didn't work. Even with the one sd card I had worked it before. I tried with SanDiskUltra HCI 10 (32GB y 64GB) and Kingston SDC 10 (32 y 64GB).

I would appreciate any help you could provide. Thanks.

I suggest you try running the Etcher as Administrator. I was having the same issue but that solved my problem.

On previous versions, Etcher would throw a warning before starting the flashing process saying that it couldn't proceed without Admin permissions, but that is not happening on the latest version for some reason.

I keep getting the exact error, using version 1.5.116, It doesn't pass the validation step. the drive seems to work fine on windows but my 905x, 2gb box does not recognize it. Keeps telling me its corrupted. I’ve tried to run Etcher in admin but that still keeps giving Flash failed.

same here

Same problem here, it goes to 100% of Validating and then fails. But if I skip validating, no warnings or errors are displayed.
I guess it's etcher's problem validating some SD cards.

Hi, I had this problem and it was being caused because controlled folder access was switched on in Microsoft Defender and I wasn't getting the notifications because Focus Assist was also on - Note. I download to my Desktop and had added this to my controlled access but I'm sure the download folder is on by default, hope that helps

Still the same problem

does @fearixarmada 's solution help by chance? re: whitelisting etcher in controlled folder access options

Press Ctrl+Shift+I and look for log in Console tab. Mine shows that it's just an Error: Unmount failed so I can safely ignore it. It's just quite annoying to see something FAIL :))

true @nhphuong91 , in fact it's interesting that there's no error modal accessible as it should provide the error message you see in the console, so something isn't right for sure there

@thundron Just accidentally found something which might be the cause of Error: Unmount failed issue.
I use a USB port hub on my monitor (Asus PA279CV). It has 2 modes: USB2.0 & USB3.1. If I flash my SD card in USB2.0 mode, it's success. However, If I switch to USB3.1 mode, the flashing process end with Error: Unmount failed log. Using the USB3.1 port directly on notebook yield the same issue.
=> could be some incompatibility with USB3.1 specs, which prevent the ejection at the last step

interesting, so it would hint to differences between unmounting different USBx specs?

I encountered this problem after I enabled Windows' Ransomware protection.
The way I got Balena to work was to let it fail, then open Windows Protection History (Win+R explorer windowsdefender://History) and choose action "Allow on device" for the most recent item, a "Protected memory access blocked" instance. Try etching again. Hope it helps others.

I use a USB port hub on my monitor (Asus PA279CV). It has 2 modes: USB2.0 & USB3.1. If I flash my SD card in USB2.0 mode, it's success. However, If I switch to USB3.1 mode, the flashing process end with Error: Unmount failed log.

Curious, USB is supposed to be forwards- and backwards-compatible in both directions. Perhaps your SD reader is actually USB3-capable, and uses UASP when it's connected via USB3, but not when via USB2? (and that's causing the USB storage drivers in Windows to behave differently?)

Hi, I had this problem and it was being caused because controlled folder access was switched on in Microsoft Defender and I wasn't getting the notifications because Focus Assist was also on - Note. I download to my Desktop and had added this to my controlled access but I'm sure the download folder is on by default, hope that helps

THIS WAS MY SOLUTION!!

I encountered this problem after I enabled Windows' Ransomware protection. The way I got Balena to work was to let it fail, then open Windows Protection History (Win+R explorer windowsdefender://History) and choose action "Allow on device" for the most recent item, a "Protected memory access blocked" instance. Try etching again. Hope it helps others.

THIS!

I had this problem trying to flash used cards for PiAware when trying to update to 7.2. I had to remove the partitions on the SD card (Win 10 or 11, search "create and format hard disk partitions", right-click on each volume and select "delete" until there's only one volume), then balena-Etcher worked just fine.

I suggest you try running the Etcher as Administrator. I was having the same issue but that solved my problem.

On previous versions, Etcher would throw a warning before starting the flashing process saying that it couldn't proceed without Admin permissions, but that is not happening on the latest version for some reason.

thanks a lot my friend... it worked smoothly after running belena with admin permissions. cheers

Try turning off the Windows Defender it worked for also don't forget to turn on the Windows Defender back after the purpose is full filled

Cheers 🤗

I had the same failure problem. Tried several things. I took my sd card and card reader and plugged it directly into my comuter's USB port. Previously it was plugged into a USB 3.0 4 port hub. Now it is writing the image correctly.

On windows 11 you have to disable controlled folder access in order to make it work.

https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-use-etcher-with-win11/349919/7

disabled controlled folder was already switched off, i switched off windows defender firewall, used etcher as an administrator to flash the image on my SD card, used 3 different SD cards, and still get the message during verification stage: flash failed....
Any suggestions?
If i put the SDcard with the failed flash, in the pi3b, the stratux worked during a few weeks, now i get after a while error message gps disconnected not communicating. Changed GPS mouse, same issue. Also the wifi tends to stop working, then connceting again... I use iphone and ipad to check, they both cant find the wifi from stratux anymore. After reboot of stratux, it works again for a short period, and then the issues start again....
What could be wrong? In the beginning it all worked ok...

Also fails. Win 11, tested with several target drives, same outcome. Write is actually successful (target drive written fine) but the error rises up anyway everytime.

TLDR, do yourself a favor and try using a USB 2.0 port directly on your machine and running Etcher with Admin rights.

Windows 10 here, and I was having this issue and tried numerous devices including flash drive, microSD card, card reader, USB hub, USB port directly on the machine, I did not have controlled folder on and I was running with Admin rights. Flash drive failed on validation, but microSD card failed instantly. I was just now able to successfully flash both by......plugging the flash drive and the SD card reader directly into a USB 2.0 port on the computer. There must be a compatibility issue with Etcher. This was a fresh installation of Etcher, too.

TLDR: I don't have a USB 2.0 port anymore.

Etcher needs to be fixed. Period.