How to Boot Raspberry Pi 4 via SSD or Network
We’ll show how to modify your Raspberry Pi 4 or 400 bootloader to boot via USB storage media, such as an external SSD (solid-state drive), which is way faster, more reliable, and offers more storage than a microSD card. You will also learn how to enable network boot on your Raspberry Pi 4 to boot via an Ethernet (internet) connection.
Why Boot Raspberry Pi from SSD or Network?
There are certain situations where you would want to boot Raspberry Pi from a USB SSD instead of a microSD card.
For instance, when you enable Raspberry Pi 4 boot from SSD, the Pi checks for connected bootable USB devices first. If no bootable USB device is detected, the Pi checks for the SD card and boots the OS from that. Thus, you can use Raspberry Pi to boot, run, or test other OS releases without needing to format or delete the main OS from the SD card that you use every day.
Also, if you don’t have an SD card, or have a smaller-capacity SD card but require more storage for your purpose, USB boot via a flash drive (such as a thumb drive or SSD) makes sense. However, if the Raspberry Pi 4 stops booting, look for thesecauses for a Raspberry Pi that won’t boot and fix them.
If you have a Pi 3, you can modify the/boot/config.txtfile to allow Raspberry Pi 3 to boot from SSD or any other supported external media. Just add the following line:
With a Raspberry Pi 3B+, it’s even simpler: you should just be able to connect a USB SSD with an OS on it and it will boot up.
Flash USB Bootloader Firmware
To enable Raspberry Pi SSD boot, you need to flash the USB bootloader firmware to your Raspberry Pi 4. For this, you will require a microSD card of any size (as small as 256MB will work). Then follow these steps to flash the USB bootloader to your Raspberry Pi 4.
Flash and Boot Raspberry Pi From SSD
Your Raspberry Pi 4 is now ready to boot from external USB storage media, such as a thumb drive or portable SSD or hard drive. However, you need to flash the USB boot media with the desired OS you want to boot via Raspberry Pi 4. The steps are as follows:
You can also follow these instructions to enable Raspberry Pi 400 boot from SSD.
Flash Network Boot Firmware
Enabling network boot on Raspberry Pi 4 is easy and comes in handy if the Raspberry Pi 4 fails to boot from the connected SD card for any reason, such as OS corruption. When you flash the network boot firmware, the Raspberry Pi 4 will try booting from the SD card first. However, if the OS is not found or damaged, the Raspberry Pi 4 will load the Imager tool.
In such cases, you don’t need to re-flash the SD card using your computer, which requires you to remove the card from the Raspberry Pi 4. Instead, you can use the automatically loaded Raspberry Pi Imager tool to download and flash the OS directly from the internet to the SD card without needing to remove the card from the Raspberry Pi 4.
The steps are as follows:
You can now remove the network boot SD card. If you now insert a blank SD card and connect an Ethernet cable, you can flash the card with the desired OS directly from the internet on your Raspberry Pi 4.
Boot Raspberry Pi via Network Connection (Ethernet)
If you have flashed the network boot bootloader on your Raspberry Pi 4, it will load the Raspberry Pi Imager tool. You need to follow these steps to flash the OS from the internet when network boot is enabled.
This will save you time, and you are not required to disconnect anything from your Raspberry Pi 4.
Test or Run Multiple Pi OSes via USB Boot
With USB boot, you’re able to enable Raspberry Pi 4 boot from SSD and try multiple operating systems, including beta versions, compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 or Raspberry Pi 3, and test them without having to remove the SD card running the stable version.
It also helps you increase the storage, which comes in handy when you use the Raspberry Pi 4 as a MotionEye NVR or Plex server to store video recordings or movies and TV shows. Network boot helps you quickly rescue the system when the OS on an SD card fails to boot due to corruption or any other reason.
Whatever your Raspberry Pi project, there’s an operating system for it. Here are the best Raspberry Pi operating systems!
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