Friday 18 January 2019

Problems Imaging a microSD card with Win32DiskImager or balenaEtcher- Access is Denied Error 5. Bonus Safe Mode From Windows 10 Easy Access.

So I dusted off our RetroPie and was trying to reimage the microSD card in it.  Should have been easy-peasy, but instead, it was very frustrating.  I tried using the recommended "balenaEtcher" but got nowhere but unhelpful "denied" type errors.  I also tried using the tried and true Win32DiskImager and still received the same messages.

I puzzled over it a few hours, repartitioning, reformatting, trying to use my phone or camera to low level format the card, using different SD to USB adapters and different cards, all to no avail.

Then I contemplated that perhaps Windows 10 was doing fritzy stuff in the background with the card.

A quick reboot into safe mode, and things worked just fine.  It is annoying, and takes twice as long to do, but it works.

Safe mode in most versions of Windows wasn't challenging to access by tapping F8 while booting up.  Windows 10 has changed that, so it's easiest to get access by holding down the Windows key and pressing "R" (for run).  Then type in "msconfig" and tap enter.  Select the "boot" tab, and then check the box for "Safe Boot".

Apply/OK (what purpose does having two keys serve?) and you're all set.  Reboot your system, image your card, and reboot again!

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