How to Image a Raspberry Pi with Rufus

Introduction

Imaging a Raspberry Pi involves writing the prebuilt dashboard image to an SD card. Rufus is a popular tool for this task due to its simplicity and efficiency. This guide will walk you through the process.

Requirements

• A Raspberry Pi

• An SD card (at least 8GB recommended)

• A computer with Windows OS

• Rufus software

• A Raspberry Pi OS image file

Steps

1. Download Rufus

   • Visit the Rufus website and download the latest version of the software.

   • Install Rufus on your computer.

2. Download the relevant Pi image for your state

   • Go to our support article Raspberry Pi Setup to download the relevant image you want to use.

3. Insert the SD Card

   • Insert your SD card into your computer using an SD card reader.

4. Open Rufus

   • Launch Rufus. You should see your SD card listed under the "Device" section.

5. Select the OS Image

   • Click on the "Select" button next to the "Boot selection" field.

   • Navigate to the location where you downloaded the Raspberry Pi OS image and select it.

6. Configure Rufus Settings

   • Ensure the "Partition scheme" is set to "MBR" and the "File system" is set to "FAT32".

   • You can leave other settings at their default values.

7. Start the Imaging Process

   • Click the "Start" button to begin writing the image to the SD card.

   • Rufus will prompt you to confirm that you want to write the image. Click "OK" to proceed.

   • The process may take several minutes. Once it's complete, Rufus will notify you.

8. Eject the SD Card

   • Safely eject the SD card from your computer.

9. Boot Your Raspberry Pi

   • Insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi.

   • Connect your Raspberry Pi to a power source and monitor.

   • Your Raspberry Pi should boot up with the new OS.