Loading Raspbian on the New Raspberry Pi 4 B

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Today, we will install an OS on our Raspberry Pi 4 B. There are quiet a few different Linux versions that will operate with the Raspberry Pi. For this post, we will be installing Raspbian using NOOBS. If this is you first experience with a Raspberry Pi, this is a great operating system to work with. It is well documented and has a lot of features.

Before the operating system can be installed, a SD card is needed. You can purchase SD cards with NOOBS pre-installed; but, in some cases it may need to be reloaded. I purchased a pre-installed card since I needed another SD card and wanted to save a little time. Unfortunately, the software on it was older and would not load on the New Raspberry Pi 4 B.

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To load NOOBS onto a SD card, first we have to format it. To format the card, download SD Card Formatter. Once Installed, select the drive for the card and run a format. Before formatting, you may want to add a Volume Label.

Formatting may take several minutes. The length of time depends on the size of the SD card and the speed of the machine.

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After you are done formatting your SD card, download the latest version of NOOBS. There are 2 versions available for download. NOOBS Lite is much smaller; but, requires internet connection when installing Raspbian. The regular NOOBS download contains everything to install Raspbian and does not require internet connection while installing. Both versions work well. Typically, I uses the standard NOOBS installation.

Once you have NOOBS downloaded, extract the zip file and copy the contents to the SD card. After the files are copied, insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi.

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On power up, you should see the choice to install Raspbian. Click the check box and install. It will take some time for Raspbian to install. There will be a screen displaying the status of the install.

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After the installation is finished, NOOBS will prompt you. Click OK and the Pi will reboot.

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At this point, the Raspberry Pi should boot to the Raspbian desktop. If it is the first time booting, Raspbian will ask for your time zone and keyboard layout. Our Raspberry Pi is ready to use.

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