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How to Image a Raspberry Pi with Rufus

How to Image a Raspberry Pi with Rufus

Owned by Nick Grentell
Last updated: Jan 13, 2025
2 min read

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.