Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
image ile lashed onto the SD card. Although it's possible to install a Windows-compatible
version of
dd
, there is an easier way: the Image Writer for Windows. Designed speciically for
creating USB or SD card images of Linux distributions, it features a simple graphical user
interface that makes the creation of a Raspberry Pi SD card straightforward.
he latest version of Image Writer for Windows can be found at the oicial website:
https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer
. Follow these steps to download,
install and use the Image Writer for Windows software to prepare the SD card for the Pi:
1
Download the
binary
(not
source
) Image Writer for Windows Zip ile, and extract it to a
folder on your computer.
2
Plug your blank SD card into a card reader connected to the PC.
3
Double-click the
Win32DiskImager.exe
ile to open the program, and click the blue
folder icon to open a ile browse dialogue box.
4
Browse to the
imagefilename
.img
ile you extracted from the distribution archive,
replacing
imagefilename.img
with the actual name of the ile extracted from the
Zip archive, and then click the Open button.
5
Select the drive letter corresponding to the SD card from the Device drop-down dia-
logue box. If you're unsure which drive letter to choose, open My Computer or
Windows Explorer to check.
6
Click the Write button to lash the image ile to the SD card. his process takes a while,
so be patient!
No matter which operating system you're writing from, it's important to ensure you leave the
SD card connected until the image has been completely written. If you don't, you may ind
that Pi doesn't
boot
when the SD card is connected. If this happens, start the process again.
WARNING
When the image has been lashed onto the SD card, remove it from the computer and insert it into
the Raspberry Pi's SD card slot, located underneath the circuit board. The SD card should be inserted
with the label facing away from the board and pushed fully home to ensure a good connection.
Connecting External Storage
While the Raspberry Pi uses an SD card for its main storage device—known as a
boot device
—
you may ind that you run into space limitations quite quickly. Although large SD cards hold-
ing 32 GB, 64 GB or more are available, they are often prohibitively expensive.
hankfully, there are devices that provide an additional hard drive to any computer when con-
nected via a USB cable. Known as
USB Mass Storage (UMS)
devices, these can be physical hard
drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) or even portable pocket-sized lash drives (see Figure 1-6).
