Introduction
Currently there are two ways to install Raspberry Pi OS on your device.
What you’ll need:
- Computer running windows 7 or newer or Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or newer.
- An internet connection, wired or wireless
- (1) Formatted Micro SD card (https://labratsworkshop.com/how-to-format-an-sd-card/ ) and adapter
Here’s the easy way,
- Navigate to www.raspberrypi.com
- Now Click on ‘software’ and download the imager application for your operating system.
- Insert a freshly formatted sd card into your computer
- Install the “Raspberry Pi Imager” application by clicking on imager_1.7.1.exe file. (this was the latest version when this was written).
- Choose your OS
- Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) is recommended if you’re new to this.
- Now choose your storage device (the SD Card)
Note: Make sure you have the correct drive letter. This utility will overwrite any drive you point it to. I like to remove all usb drives except the one I’m using just to be safe.
- Now select “Write”
- Double check to make sure you have the right drive, then press “YES”.!
- After writing, the Raspberry Pi Imager will verify the image.
- This operation took 14 Minutes on my pc. It may require more or less time for you.
- You can now remove the SD Card from your pc.
Here’s the other way, which is also easy.
1. Go over to raspberrypi.com.
2. Select the “Software” Tab
- Scroll Down until you see “Manually install an operating system image”
- Click on “See all download options” and select the first one “Raspberry Pi OS”. This is the version that is compatible with all raspberry pi models. I’d recommend you use this one if you’re new to raspberry pi projects.
- Here you’ll see the recent releases of Raspberry Pi OS. Choose the newest one which is at the top of the list.
- If you’re familiar with torrents, you can use the “Download torrent” button. Otherwise, just hit the blue “Download” button. For me it took about 10 minutes for the image to download.
- Unzip the image to a convenient location.
Download etcher from https://www.balena.io/etcher/
Run etcher
Select Flash from file and select your image file – that’s the one with the .img extension. Then click open.
Now select the usb drive you want to flash the image to. Again, be careful because whichever drive you select will be overwritten.
- Finally select Flash!
You’ll see a progress screen:
Then etcher will validate the image.
- It’s done when you see the “Flash Complete!” Screen
- Before you remove the SD card from your computer, create an empty text file in the root directory of the SD Card called ‘ssh’. Note there is no extension. This will allow you to access your RaspberryPI via ssh.
- Now you can dismount the usb and put the sd card in your RaspberryPi. Make sure that power is not connected to the RaspberryPi.