How to repurpose the Balena Etcher drive after Garuda Linux install?

Issues & Assistance Newbies
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1

Dear Garuda Linux community -

I am trying to repurpose the Balena Etcher drive that I used after the Garuda Linux install, but I cannot partition it using KDE Partiiton Manager. Everytime I follow the steps in this page (How to reuse a balena-etched usb drive without destroing it? - Product support - balenaForums), and reboot my machine, it goes back to the same ISO drive.
It is a 4TB external HDD that I used, so I’d like to repurpose it.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Please post the terminal/konsole input and output as text (no pictures) from the following command:

╰─λ garuda-inxi
System:
Kernel: 6.5.9-zen2-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
clocksource: tsc available: acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=b331db73-b40f-4053-bd76-ad05d7a53ff1 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet loglevel=3 ibt=off
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.9 tk: Qt v: 5.15.11 wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1
dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20YRS71400 v: ThinkPad P15 Gen 2i
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: LENOVO model: 20YRS71400 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
v: N37ET42W (1.23 ) date: 08/31/2022
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 92.3 Wh (97.8%) condition: 94.4/94.0 Wh (100.4%)
power: 25.6 W volts: 12.5 min: 11.5 model: Celxpert 5B10W13959 type: Li-poly
serial: <filter> status: discharging cycles: 7
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Xeon W-11955M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Tiger Lake
level: v4 note: check built: 2020 process: Intel 10nm family: 6
model-id: 0x8D (141) stepping: 1 microcode: 0x46
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 8 tpc: 2 threads: 16 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 640 KiB desc: d-8x48 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 10 MiB desc: 8x1.2 MiB
L3: 24 MiB desc: 1x24 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 812 high: 1000 min/max: 800/4900:5000 scaling:
driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 1000 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 13: 800
14: 800 15: 800 16: 800 bogomips: 83558
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics] vendor: Lenovo driver: i915
v: kernel arch: Gen-12.1 process: Intel 10nm built: 2020-21 ports:
active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, DP-5, HDMI-A-1
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a70 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: NVIDIA GA104GLM [RTX A5000 Mobile] vendor: Lenovo driver: nvidia
v: 545.29.02 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 545.xx+ status: current
(as of 2023-10; EOL~2026-12-xx) arch: Ampere code: GAxxx
process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-2023 pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:24b6 class-ID: 0300
Device-3: Chicony Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-4:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b6be
class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
unloaded: nouveau alternate: fbdev,intel,nv,vesa dri: iris
gpu: i915,nvidia display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1707x960 size: N/A modes: N/A
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0
drv: nvidia device: 1 drv: iris device: 3 drv: swrast surfaceless:
drv: nvidia wayland: drv: iris x11: drv: iris inactive: gbm,device-2
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 23.2.1-arch1.2
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (TGL GT1)
device-ID: 8086:9a70 memory: 30.33 GiB unified: yes display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.269 layers: 4 device: 0 type: integrated-gpu name: Intel
UHD Graphics (TGL GT1) driver: mesa intel v: 23.2.1-arch1.2
device-ID: 8086:9a70 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 1
type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA RTX A5000 Laptop GPU driver: nvidia
v: 545.29.02 device-ID: 10de:24b6 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 2
type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM 16.0.6 256 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe
v: 23.2.1-arch1.2 (LLVM 16.0.6) device-ID: 10005:0000
surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-H HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
alternate: snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
chip-ID: 8086:43c8 class-ID: 0401
Device-2: NVIDIA GA104 High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228b class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.5.9-zen2-1-zen status: kernel-api tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.84 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2725
class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp9s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Ethernet I225-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: igc v: kernel
pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: N/A bus-ID: 0b:00.0
chip-ID: 8086:15f2 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp11s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-14:8 chip-ID: 8087:0032
class-ID: e001
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 3 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.3
lmp-v: 12 status: discoverable: no pairing: no class-ID: 7c010c
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 5.5 TiB used: 61.7 GiB (1.1%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Micron model: MTFDKBA2T0TFH
size: 1.86 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 7006P7LN temp: 41.9 C
scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: SanDisk model: Extreme Pro 55AF
size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: USB rev: 3.2
spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 tech: N/A serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 1087 scheme: MBR
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 1.86 TiB size: 1.86 TiB (100.00%) used: 61.7 GiB (3.2%)
fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 576 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 1.86 TiB size: 1.86 TiB (100.00%)
used: 61.7 GiB (3.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 1.86 TiB size: 1.86 TiB (100.00%)
used: 61.7 GiB (3.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 1.86 TiB size: 1.86 TiB (100.00%)
used: 61.7 GiB (3.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 31.05 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo,lzo-rle,lz4,lz4hc,842 max-streams: 16 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
Src: /sys System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 1972 fan-2: 1816
Info:
Processes: 331 Uptime: 8m wakeups: 0 Memory: total: 32 GiB note: est.
available: 31.05 GiB used: 4.39 GiB (14.1%) Init: systemd v: 254
default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 Packages:
pm: pacman pkgs: 1479 libs: 440 tools: octopi,paru Shell: fish v: 3.6.1
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.31
Garuda (2.6.17-1):
System install date:     2023-11-07
Last full system update: 2023-11-06
Is partially upgraded:   No
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager dracut nvidia-dkms
Windows dual boot:       Probably (Run as root to verify)
Failed units:            nmb.service systemd-vconsole-setup.service
2

Why not just format it using dolphin?

3

By repurpose I assume you would like to remove the ISO you had there and store data on it again? Here from archwiki,

Note: To restore the USB drive as an empty, usable storage device after using the Arch ISO image, the ISO 9660 filesystem signature needs to be removed by running wipefs --all /dev/disk/by-id/usb-My_flash_drive as root, before repartitioning and reformatting the USB drive.

wiki link just in case → USB flash installation medium - ArchWiki

5 Likes
4

Not what the file manager is meant for even if there is a feature / plugin to do so.

2 Likes
5

this is why ventoy is better >.>

4 Likes
6

Just be sure if you use this method that you unplug all other data storage devices on the USB bus. Triple check that your destination drive in the command is the correct one. Executing this command will result in unrecoverable data destruction, so you do not want to mistakenly target an important storage partition.

Just, be careful using commands such as this if you are inexperienced.

4 Likes
7

You said you can’t use KDE Partition Manager but didn’t say why? What issue?

If you mean you try partition but you reboot and it’s reverted, it’s because in KDE Partition Manager you actually have to click the Apply button. When you do the partitioning changes it basically just queues them until you press apply.

2 Likes
8

i had this issue last year and did not look into a command line function as i had borked my garuda install, so i used EaseUS partition manager over on windows to reset the flash drive and then i put ventoy and an ISO on it. (dual-boot ftw >.>)

1 Like
9

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