Preparing an SD card for your Raspberry Pi

In order for the Raspberry Pi to boot, it requires an SD card flashed with an operating system (OS). It is possible to get such a card from 12Geeks. Alternatively, there are various shops online selling pre-flashed SD cards.

If you already have an SD card lying around collecting dust, about a maximum of twenty minutes of effort will get your SD card Pi-ready! This short guide will show you how to flash your SD card to make it bootable by your Raspberry Pi.

Firstly, check that your SD card is at least 4GB in capacity. Backup any data you have on the card as the installation process will remove all existing data. Once that is done, proceed to install New Out of Box Software (NOOBS) on it.

NOOBS is a software with a user friendly interface that allows you to choose your Raspberry Pi OS of choice, such as Raspbian, Arch, Raspbmc. It is possible to install these OSes without NOOBS so feel free to do so by following documentation on the respective OSes’ websites. But believe us, NOOBS does make it easy and convenient with just a few mouse clicks.

Download NOOBS from http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/noobs. While the download progresses, format the SD card.

Windows

  1. Download the SD Association’s Formatting Tool
  2. Install and run the Formatting Tool on your machine
  3. Set “FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT” option to “ON” in the “Options” menu
  4. Check that the SD card you inserted matches the one selected by the Tool
  5. Click the “Format” button

Mac

  1. Download the SD Association’s Formatting Tool
  2. Install and run the Formatting Tool on your machine
  3. Select “Overwrite Format”
  4. Check that the SD card you inserted matches the one selected by the Tool v. Click the “Format” button

Linux

  1. It is recommended to use gparted(or the command line version parted)
  2. Format the entire disk as FAT

After the SD card has been formatted and the NOOBS download completed, unzip the downloaded NOOBS archive and extract the files:

  • Windows ­ Right click on the file and choose “Extract all”
  • Mac ­ Double tap on the file
  • Linux ­ Run unzip[downloaded filename] in the terminal

Copy the extracted files over to your SD card and you have an SD card pre-installed with NOOBS. Insert the card into an unpowered Raspberry Pi and turn on the power. The card should boot and you will be greeted with a screen similar to this:

os_selected

Select your OS of choice to begin installing. It is recommended to select Raspbian if you are totally new to using Linux on the Raspberry Pi.

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