This recipe shows how to install a Raspberry Pi operating system image on an SD card using the open source Image Writer for Windows, Win32DiskImager.exe.
You should have already downloaded a Raspberry Pi disk image, and you should be ready to write the disk image onto an SD card using a Windows PC.
To complete this recipe, you will also need an Internet connection to download Image Writer for Windows.
Once you've completed this recipe, you will be able to write Raspberry Pi images to SD cards from a Windows computer.
A computer running Windows with an SD card writer
An SD card of 4 GB or greater (class 10 has the best performance)
A Raspberry Pi operating system image file
A precompiled
Win32DiskImagerbinary
The precompiled binary of Win32DiskImager is distributed as a ZIP file and can be downloaded from https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer.
The following steps are required to write a disk image to an SD card on a Windows computer:
Download the
Win32DiskImagerZIP file from https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer.Expand the ZIP file to a folder on disk, such as
C:\Win32DiskImager.Run
Win32DiskImager.exefrom the install folder.Select the downloaded Raspberry Pi disk image as the source image file and the location of your SD card writer as the target device.
Click on the Write button to copy the image to the SD card.
Writing an image to disk takes about 5 minutes for a 2 GB image file. Once the image is written to the SD card, the SD card can be ejected and used to boot the Raspberry Pi.
First, you will need to download and install Image Writer for Windows (Win32DiskImager). The Win32DiskImager is a single standalone executable and can be installed to a folder that is located anywhere on your PC.
Double-click on the expanded Win32DiskImager executable to start the application.
Once the application has started, select the downloaded Raspberry Pi disk image as the source Image File and then select the location of the SD card writer as the target device. When you click on the Write button, the Win32DiskImager writes the Raspberry Pi disk image to the SD card.
The Win32DiskImager is also an excellent backup tool! After booting and configuring the Raspberry Pi, a backup can be made to preserve the image in case the SD card is damaged or lost.
To create a backup, perform the following steps:
Run
Win32DiskImager.exe.Select SD card as the source and a new image file as the target.
Click on the Read button to read the SD card in a new image on the disk.
The steps needed to back up a Raspberry Pi disk image from an SD card are similar to those required to write the image. The only difference is that during a backup, the SD card is the source of the copy, and a new image on the disk is the target.
A new backup should be created after each update to the Raspberry Pi's operating system, application software, or configuration.
Image Writer for Windows (https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer): This utility was originally written to read and write disk images for a specific Linux distribution. However, it has now been generalized and is now a popular tool for many development projects, such as the Raspberry Pi. The Image Writer for Windows homepage has details about this disk image utility.