Raspberry Pi Forums

HI, I recently go my Pi in the mail and have been trying to get it up and running. My first step was to create a Debian image on an SD card. The card is a Sandisk SDHC class 4 8GB. I have tried to use Win32 Disk Imager to do this. I follow the steps exactly but the problem I run into is that, while Windows has no problem seeing the card at the E: drive, for some reason Win32 DI cannot find it, there are no options under device when I click on the dropdown menu. I have also attempted this with on dd for windows to no avail. I am currently using a Toshiba Satellite p205-s6347 running Vista. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I've had the same issue - no matter what I do, I can't get W32DI to pick up and SD card. I've used DD instead. It's a command-line tool, but it's a fairly simple process. I've written a guide here that should walk you through the process:
http://myraspberrypiexperience.blogspot ... ndows.html

Got an error message when i tried to run dd that read as such:

Device e could not be found
Invalid block size

I had this problem with built in card reader on lapop. If you use a card reader via USB then all OK.

Kuma wrote:Got an error message when i tried to run dd that read as such:

Device e could not be found
Invalid block size

You'll need to run the command prompt as an administrator user (right-click on the icon, Run as Administrator)

Tass wrote:

Kuma wrote:Got an error message when i tried to run dd that read as such:

Device e could not be found
Invalid block size

You'll need to run the command prompt as an administrator user (right-click on the icon, Run as Administrator)

Isn't Windows fun? Particularly, post XP Windows...

Guys, if this is just the drop down list for the drive letter not being populated - I have seen this. I've worked around it by just restarting Win32DiskImager a few times and it does finds it after 4 or 5 tries. I think it's a bug in the program.
I posted on my blog agaes ago about it.

Davespice wrote:Guys, if this is just the drop down list for the drive letter not being populated - I have seen this. I've worked around it by just restarting Win32DiskImager a few times and it does finds it after 4 or 5 tries. I think it's a bug in the program.
I posted on my blog agaes ago about it.

I did get W32DI working once, although if I remember correctly it was around my 30th or 40th attempt. DD is much easier

My experience is the opposite, W32DI has worked fine on my work XP system. Only have Ubuntu at home so use DD there.

jamesh wrote:My experience is the opposite, W32DI has worked fine on my work XP system. Only have Ubuntu at home so use DD there.

I think that's the crux of it. Like most things, it works fine under XP, but is all screwed up under Vista/7/etc.

Tass wrote:

Kuma wrote:Got an error message when i tried to run dd that read as such:

Device e could not be found
Invalid block size

You'll need to run the command prompt as an administrator user (right-click on the icon, Run as Administrator)

Unfortunately I did that, double checked even.

Well, so far, I have tried DD for Windows, running Win32DI in XP mode, tried running Win32 multiple times. None have worked.

Since no-one has mentioned the obvious, I guess maybe I should: SDHC cards are a separate standard - very similar, but different from SD. Older SD card readers may not support SDHC, rather the drivers for that reader may not support SDHC: so it might be worth checking for updated SD drivers for the host PC. Of course if you buy a newish USB/SD adapter then you bypass the problem.

Really having a problem, you haven't for a spare card you could try have you. At least that way you've ruled out your card.

Kuma wrote:Well, so far, I have tried DD for Windows, running Win32DI in XP mode, tried running Win32 multiple times. None have worked.

Kuma,
it's a long shot, but have you tried re-formating your card before trying win32diskimager? I had similar problems with both XP and win 7, and found that the only way I could get it to work was to remove all exisitng partitions on my card and replace them with one Fat32 partion.

I used a boot-CD image thatr contains gparted.

(I tried the same with diskpart on both XP and win7 but it just hung)

Be aware, though, that I had to try a few times going round the gparted - win32diskimager cycle as the latter would sometimes hang during the write process. As far as I coudl tell, there was some sort of conflict going on and once the non windows partitions were written to the SD card something would cause the write to fail.

Have you cleared out the partitions on the card before you use DD? If not, you'll need to do that first (you can see how on both my & Davespice's blogs - links above)

RaspberryPiBeginners wrote:Really having a problem, you haven't for a spare card you could try have you. At least that way you've ruled out your card.

I already tried that, problem is, its the same type of card; SDHC 8GB Class 4. This was to no avail as well

Tass wrote:Have you cleared out the partitions on the card before you use DD? If not, you'll need to do that first (you can see how on both my & Davespice's blogs - links above)

Yes, the partitions have been cleaned out.

Even though ive been hitting a brick wall here, I just wanted to thank everyone thats been helping out and being patient. Its really appreciated.

I don't have a problem with W32DI as such. It's worked a treat in fact!

The problem is, I want to undo what it's done. Howw do I make my 4Gb SD card a 4Gb SD again? I'd like to be able to stick it back in my camera so it needs to be FAT32!!!

Thanks in advance.

Well, I got to the root of the problem. Turns out that the poster that suggested another card reader was correct. It doesnt seem to play well with internal card readers.

Thank you everyone, now I get to play with my Pi

On my dell laptop it worked only with 'Roadkil's Disk Image'. I don't wanted to buy a lot of stuff just to write an image...

I had this problem with an amazon basics 16 gig card. I finally found this page and used the flashnul instructions and it worked perfectly. http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup

Running Windows 7, using a Dell Inspiron 7520 with an internal SD card reader, and a Kingston 8Gb micro SDHC card with its own SD adapter, plugged into the Dell, repeatedly hung W32DI. The card appeared in the Windows Explorer with an SDHC icon.

Thanks to the comments above I tried it with an old USB SD card reader. This time the card appeared without the SDHC icon, just as a FAT32 Removable Storage device, and W32DI seems to be working fine.

Many thanks.