Raspberry PI Imager: new SD flashing tool from RPI Foundation

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Last Updated on 6th February 2022 by peppe8o

Raspberry PI 4 model B image
Raspberry PI 4 model B image

Every Raspberry PI project starts always from OS installation with SD card flashing. There are several ways to flash SD image for Raspberry PIs, most common being Balena Etcher and Win32DiskImager. Recently Raspberry PI Foundation released its first Raspberry PI imager to prepare SD cards. Trying it is a must for Raspberry PI lovers.

Install Raspberry PI Imager

Raspberry Pi Imager is available for 3 Platforms: Windows, macOS and Ubuntu. Take it from Raspberry Pi download page and install according to your OS.

Usage

Using Raspberry PI Imager is very simple and intuitive.

After installation, launch RPI Imager:

RPI Imager home

Click “CHOOSE OS” to select your favourite OS:

RPI Imager select OS

Last picture shows you a set of pre-defined OS you can directly download and install in your Raspberry PI. Raspbian Lite can be found inside “Raspbian (other)” submenu. You can also install alternative OS images with last menù selection (Use Custom), by providing pre-downloaded “.img” files.

Once selected your favourite OS, insert SD card from “CHOOSE SD CARD” button:

RPI Imager Raspbian Lite Write prompt

Finally, “WRITE” button will download selected OS (if not available locally) and install it. Wait for operations to be completed. At installation end, you will be notified as in following picture:

RPI Imager Raspbian Lite Write finished

After this, your SD card is ready to be used. You can now remove and use it.

At this point, you are ready to try our best Raspberry PI projects with open source software.

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