Win32 Disk Imager - Error 5: Access is denied

I think this error actually has nothing to do with permissions; I think it's merely a result of a mismatch between the size of the SD and the image.  For instance, perhaps one reason some may have luck with work arounds involving reformatting the SD has to do with a resulting resize.

Some options:

  • Resize the volume to exactly match the image
  • Use another imaging tool that is resilient to size differences, such as the Raspberry Pi Imager to write the image.
Aside:

I wouldn't normally blog about something like this; usually something like a forum response, but all relevant forums seem to be closed on this and I hope to save time for posterity.

On a personal note, I really hate errors with a bunch of "xy and z worked for me" solutions scattered across the web and no root cause ideas.  Not only are they annoying to wade through, they tend to persist for years and cause people to do all sorts of odd things to their configurations, most of which they are unlikely to undo if and when they find something that finally works.  Those reconfiguration loose ends can even leave users prone to future problems of a particularly difficult to diagnose nature.

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