How to Boot Raspberry Pi from USB: A Step-by-Step Guide

With more storage space than an SD card, USB booting allows you to do more with your Raspberry Pi, such as install a fresh operating system or run test systems. In this article, we'll show you how to boot your Raspberry Pi from USB with just a few commands and a simple firmware update. This tutorial is from the Tools website.

# Preparing to Boot Raspberry Pi from USB

Before you begin setting up your Raspberry Pi to boot from USB, make sure you have all the necessary components on hand and prepared, including:

1️⃣ Get your USB drive ready and format it to the EXT4/FAT32 file system. Raspberry Pi supports both ext4 and FAT32 formats. On Windows, the free tools Partition Master Free offers an all-in-one formatting solution. It provides faster, safer, and more reliable USB formatting than what's available on the Raspberry Pi.

Download the tool for free and get your Raspberry Pi ready to boot from USB:

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click the partition which you want to format and choose "Format".

Step 2: In the new window, type in a partition label, select the FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 file system, and set the cluster size as needed, then click “OK”.

Step 3: A warning will appear. Click "Yes" to continue.

Step 4. Click on the "Perform 1 action" button on the top left to proceed with the changes, then click "Apply" to start formatting the partition to FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4.

As a powerful and full-featured tool, AOMEI Partition Assistant also has advanced features, like installing Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 4. Download and use it, you can manage your Raspberry Pi hard drive better.

2️⃣ If you're using a newer Raspberry Pi model, such as the Raspberry Pi 4, make sure your system and firmware are updated to be compatible with USB or SSD booting. Enter the following commands in the terminal:

• sudo apt update - Update the package list
• sudo apt full-upgrade - Install any available updates, confirm with Y
• sudo rpi-eeprom-update - Update the firmware
• sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a - Apply available updates

After the update and upgrade are complete, restart your Raspberry Pi with the command sudo restart.

3️⃣ To get started with the Raspberry Pi, you first need to create an image. You can choose to use Etcher to write the image to a USB device, or download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager from the official Raspberry Pi website at https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/.

With that done, we're ready to guide you through booting from the USB drive. If this guide helped you, don't forget to hit the social buttons and share it with others who might need it.

How to Boot Your Raspberry Pi from USB

With that done, booting the Raspberry Pi from the USB drive is straightforward. Just do the following:

Phase 1: Setting up the Raspberry Pi for USB Boot

Step 1: Open the Raspberry Pi Imager and plug in your USB drive.

Step 2. Click on "Operating System" and then choose the system you want to install on your Raspberry Pi. You can also click on "Raspberry Pi OS (Other)" to get more operating system options:

Select the operating system

If you've already downloaded an operating system image to your computer, click Use a local file to load it into the writer tool.

Step 3. Click on the 'Storage' tab, select the USB drive connected to your computer as the target, and choose the USB drive as the bootable media for the Raspberry Pi:

Select storage

Step 4. Back on the main screen, click the Write button to write the selected Raspberry Pi operating system image to your USB drive:

Step 5. In the dialog that appears, click Yes. The writing process will begin, flashing the Raspberry Pi system to your USB drive.

Step 6: When the writing process is finished, Etcher will start verifying the USB drive, which might take some more time:

When it's done, click Continue, then remove the USB drive from your computer.

Step 2: Booting the Raspberry Pi from USB

Once you've done that, you'll have a bootable USB for your Raspberry Pi. But we're not quite done yet. We still need to manually configure the boot sequence and make a few final adjustments:

Step 1: Power down the Raspberry Pi and remove the spare SD card.

Step 2. Plug the bootable USB drive into one of the Raspberry Pi's USB 3.0 ports. If you're using a Raspberry Pi 4 and the SATA to USB 3.0 adapter is incompatible, use a USB 2.0 port instead.

Step 3: Plug in the power supply and turn on the Raspberry Pi 4.

When you're done, you can boot the Raspberry Pi without an SD card. The Raspberry Pi will automatically boot from the USB device. However, it may take the Raspberry Pi 10 to 20 seconds to detect the USB device and begin booting from it.

If you're experiencing issues with your Raspberry Pi not booting, find the cause of the problem and resolve it with the help of:

How to Fix a Raspberry Pi That Won't Boot [Causes and Solutions]

Is your Raspberry Pi not booting? No LED lights blinking on the device? If so, here are some quick troubleshooting tips and fixes to help resolve your Raspberry Pi not booting issue.

Conclusions

Hopefully, this guide on how to boot Raspberry Pi from USB has taught you how to set up your board. If you don't have an SD card, you can opt for a suitable Raspberry Pi external hard drive and boot the Raspberry Pi OS via USB. With this tutorial, you can also configure your board to boot from a SuperSpeed SSD or at least a faster HDD.

Regardless of whether you're working with a USB or an SSD, make sure your Raspberry Pi SD card is formatted according to the Raspberry Pi SD card format requirements. The tools Partition Master Free provides will help set things up for you.

Frequently Asked Questions about Booting Raspberry Pi from USB

If you have any feedback or questions about booting from USB, feel free to check out the popular topics in this section.

1. How do I boot the Raspberry Pi 4 from USB without an SD card?

Without an SD card, you can boot the Raspberry Pi from a USB drive. To do this, you'll first need to update the firmware; then the Raspberry Pi 3/4 will boot from USB.

Then, when writing the boot image, select the hard drive instead of the SD card in the imaging program.

2. Will the Raspberry Pi 5 boot from USB?

Of course, the Raspberry Pi 5 can boot from a USB device. Ensure that this is the only device connected. If it's a USB 3.0 device, plug it into one of the two blue USB 3.0 ports. If not, and if a microSD card is inserted in the slot, the Raspberry Pi 5 will automatically boot from the microSD card.

3. How do you boot the Raspberry Pi?

Plug the power cord into the USB-C connector near the HDMI port labeled “POWER IN.” The Raspberry Pi doesn't have a power button, so it will turn on and begin booting as soon as you plug it in.