"Assertion failed: image_path != ((void *)0)" when creating a non-bootable USB

[fnimick]

Checklist

• I have been made aware that if my problem can be summarized as "I've created or tried to create a media using Rufus, and ...", and I am not including a log, this issue will be summarily closed.
• I looked at https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ to see if my question has already been answered.
• I performed a search in the issue tracker for similar issues using keywords relevant to my problem, such as the error message I got from the log.
• I clicked the 'Log' button (🗒️) or pressed Ctrl-L in Rufus, or used DebugView, and copy/pasted the log into the section that says <FULL LOG> below.
• The log I am copying is the FULL log, starting with the line Rufus version: x.y.z - I have NOT removed any part of it.

Additionally (if applicable):

• I ran a bad blocks check, by clicking Show advanced format options then Check device for bad blocks, and confirmed that my USB is not defective.
• I also tried one or more of the following:
  • Using a different USB drive.
  • Plugging the USB into a different port.
  • Running Rufus on a different computer.
• If using an image, I clicked on the (✓) button to compute the MD5, SHA1 and SHA256 checksums, which are therefore present in the log I copied. I confirmed, by performing an internet search, that these values match the ones from the official image.

Issue description

I installed Rufus 4.13 and attempted to format a USB device with a bad blocks check, and no image selected, and got a 'Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library' assertion failed error.

Screenshot of Rufus options used:

Screenshot of VC++ error dialog:

The error text is:

Assertion failed!
Program: <path to rufus>
File: D:\a\rufus\rufus\src\rufus.c
Line: 1521
Expression: image_path != ((void *)0)

Log

Rufus x64 v4.13.2316
Windows version: Windows 11 Home x64 (Build 26200.7840)
Syslinux versions: 4.07/2013-07-25, 6.04/pre1
Grub versions: 0.4.6a, 2.14
System locale ID: 0x0409 (en-US)
Will use default UI locale 0x0409
SetLGP: Successfully set NoDriveTypeAutorun policy to 0x0000009E
Localization set to 'en-US'
Found USB 2.0 device 'General UDisk USB Device' (ABCD:1234)
1 device found
No volume information for drive 0x81
Disk type: Removable, Disk size: 7.5 GB, Sector size: 512 bytes
Cylinders: 979, Tracks per cylinder: 255, Sectors per track: 63
Partition type: MBR, NB Partitions: 1
Disk ID: 0x2998CE2D
Drive has a Rufus Master Boot Record
Partition 1:
  Type: NTFS/exFAT/UDF (0x07)
  Detected File System: exFAT
  Size: 7.5 GB (8051998720 bytes)
  Start Sector: 2048, Boot: Yes
Found 5 additional UEFI revocation filters from remote SBAT
Found 4 active Secure Boot certificate entries from remote
Found 1 revoked Secure Boot certificate entries from remote
Found USB 2.0 device 'General UDisk USB Device' (ABCD:1234)
1 device found
No volume information for drive 0x81
Disk type: Removable, Disk size: 7.5 GB, Sector size: 512 bytes
Cylinders: 979, Tracks per cylinder: 255, Sectors per track: 63
Partition type: MBR, NB Partitions: 1
Disk ID: 0x2998CE2D
Drive has a Rufus Master Boot Record
Partition 1:
  Type: NTFS/exFAT/UDF (0x07)
  Detected File System: exFAT
  Size: 7.5 GB (8051998720 bytes)
  Start Sector: 2048, Boot: Yes

[pbatard]

Hmm, that's interesting. Your Boot selection dropdown shows Disk or ISO image (please select), whereas, when starting from scratch, the only way you should be able to start formatting in the conditions you report is if you first changed the selection to Non bootable. And the fact that you see (please select) instead of the name of the currently selected image, indicates that you did not in fact select any image previously.

So my question becomes, can you recall what you did exactly to have the Rufus Boot selection to Disk or ISO image and the START button (and other controls) actionable, whereas as long as you don't set the Boot selection to Non bootable or select an image, the START button and other fields should remain greyed out:

You must have done something besides just starting Rufus and clicking START, and I would really like to know what that was, so I can fix this condition (which obviously shouldn't be allowed).

[fnimick]

It may be somehow related to the drive in question - it was failing with many bad blocks and has now fully died (rufus hangs when I plug in this drive, until Windows reports that the drive has malfunctioned)

What I did this morning was: open rufus, open the "download" modal, cancel the modal, change from MBR to GPT and back again, enable the bad blocks check, enter and exit the bad blocks dropdown, and format. But that doesn't duplicate this issue, so I have no idea what I could have done to get in the illegal state. I cannot recall whether I had to explicitly select "non bootable" or not.