Raspberry Pi Forums

Hi Team,
I am new to Raspberry pi. I bought a new SD card and formatted it using the software available in this website.
Downloaded the NOOBs file and extracted it into the SD card.
When I power up the Raspberry pi, a window is displayed where I can choose the OS to install. When I choose the OS(Raspbian), I can't install the OS as Available space is 0 Mb and it needs some space.
Even the install button is greyed out. I tried pressing I using keyboard, nothing happened.

Can you please help.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/

What brand, type and size SD card did you use? It has to be at least 4 GB and better 8GB and a faster type.

hansotten wrote:http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/

It has to be ..... and a faster type.

No it doesn't. Class 4 cards work just fine.

aathi11 wrote: When I power up the Raspberry pi, a window is displayed where I can choose the OS to install. When I choose the OS(Raspbian), I can't install the OS as Available space is 0 Mb and it needs some space.

Before loading NOOBS on the SDCard you MUST reformat it with the SDCard Assoc. formatter to restore the partition table to a single FAT/VFAT partition that has all available space assigned to it.

Download the tool from https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

DougieLawson wrote:

aathi11 wrote: When I power up the Raspberry pi, a window is displayed where I can choose the OS to install. When I choose the OS(Raspbian), I can't install the OS as Available space is 0 Mb and it needs some space.

Before loading NOOBS on the SDCard you MUST reformat it with the SDCard Assoc. formatter to restore the partition table to a single FAT/VFAT partition that has all available space assigned to it.

Download the tool from https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

Though it doesn't do any harm, that's very rarely necessary with a new (as the OP stated) card, or even one that has been used in "ordinary" devices. Invariably new cards (except SDXC ones) come formatted with a single FAT32 partition and most devices such as cameras and camcorders do not change that.

So perhaps the OP's problem had a different cause.

Nevertheless any further attempt to put NOOBS on the card should be preceded by such a reformat in case a previous NOOBS attempt has managed to alter the partition table.

Thank you for your reply.
I formatted my sd card using the formatter tool mentioned and also my card has 6.54 gb of free space after loading Noobs.
Still the issue persists.
The install and other icons on the top are all greyed out. and it says,
Needed: 2512 MB
Available: 0 Mb

Thanks in advance.

aathi11 wrote:Thank you for your reply.
I formatted my sd card using the formatter tool mentioned and also my card has 6.54 gb of free space after loading Noobs.
Still the issue persists.
The install and other icons on the top are all greyed out. and it says,
Needed: 2512 MB
Available: 0 Mb

Thanks in advance.

What brand of card is it and where did you get it?

It's Dexter Industries 8 GB SD card.

NOOBS 1.3.10 needs a wired ethernet connection to install ANYTHING other than Raspbian.

I'm trying to install only Raspbian(Recommended) not any other OS.

just flash the raspbian image on it and dont use noobs

RaTTuS wrote:just flash the raspbian image on it and dont use noobs

This is good advice, but problematic for newusers. I.e., the point of NOOBS (well, one of the points) is to make it unnecessary for newbs to have to deal with messy things like images, dd, or Win32DiskWhatever. IMHO, installing a "raw image" is going to be "against the grain" (for a variety of reasons) for a user who isn't already Linux-aware (i.e., comfortable with Linux practices and traditions).

NOOBS is nice in that the most "technical" thing you have to deal with is the concept of "Unzipping". Once you get past that, it can be all point-and-click.

RaTTuS wrote:just flash the raspbian image on it and dont use noobs

+1
The RPi is about learning, if not prepared to learn, why buy a RPi

Flashing the Rasbian image works.
I have been banging my head with NOOBs issue (Available: 0 MB) for more than 2 weeks.
I just downloaded the Win32image writer and it did everything for me.
Thanks you so much RaTTuS.
Raspberry Pi is all about learning!

aathi11 wrote:Flashing the Rasbian image works.
I have been banging my head with NOOBs issue (Available: 0 MB) for more than 2 weeks.
I just downloaded the Win32image writer and it did everything for me.
Thanks you so much RaTTuS.
Raspberry Pi is all about learning!

Great learning curve, you now have Standalone Raspbian Wheezy, well done and hope you can now enjoy the journey

Interesting, I'm experiencing an identical problem, but have not solved it yet because my antivirus software is excluding the Win32DiskImager. It would be nice to see a little more guidance about this issue in information for new users. I estimate I've spent 10 hrs of focused work trying to simply get an OS loaded, and the initiator of this post says s/he's spent 2 weeks on it. Learning about the Pi is all very well and good, but I'd just as soon have spent those 10 hrs on programming -Seth

swbigelow wrote:Interesting, I'm experiencing an identical problem, but have not solved it yet because my antivirus software is excluding the Win32DiskImager. It would be nice to see a little more guidance about this issue in information for new users. I estimate I've spent 10 hrs of focused work trying to simply get an OS loaded, and the initiator of this post says s/he's spent 2 weeks on it. Learning about the Pi is all very well and good, but I'd just as soon have spent those 10 hrs on programming -Seth

Two approaches....
1. To get Win32DiskImager to install, try running the installer as administrator.
2. To save your own time and frustration, buy a NOOBS card with NOOBS already on it.

If you have flashes to written an image to the sd card already and you want to try another OS. Whag I usually have to do is clean it.

Launch CMD on PC, then type in the following commands:

list disk
This lists the disk, pick the one you know is your SD Card

select disk 1
Assuming disk 1 is your SD Card

clean
create patition primary
exit

Then go to Computer and double tap your SD Card. It will say it needs formatting, obviously do that. Continue with Win32DiskImager to copy your image thing...

swbigelow wrote:Interesting, I'm experiencing an identical problem, but have not solved it yet because my antivirus software is excluding the Win32DiskImager.

Replace your AntiVirus software with one that works like AVG or Avast.

....actually do not use Windows is the best solution to any issues

fruitoftheloom wrote:....actually do not use Windows is the best solution to any issues

True. Which leads to what I think is really necessary: A version of NOOBS that simply, automatically, installs Raspbian, with no user-intervention (or HDMI screen, or mouse, or keyboard) needed.

We need to publish exactly that, so that newbs can always run that, and then never use Windows again. I.e., you can use that system to do all further RPi system builds/configs/whatevers. I.e., it becomes a requirement that you have 2 SD cards - one to put the "proto-system" as described above on and the second one to put your real system (the one that you'll muck up and have to re-do a few times).

fruitoftheloom wrote:....actually do not use Windows is the best solution to any issues

But that isn't practical for new users who've never used anything other than Windows (and don't have anything that can write to an SDCard other than Windows or their camera). Unless you're, really, saying that everyone should use the RPF pre-loaded NOBS cards.

DougieLawson wrote:

fruitoftheloom wrote:....actually do not use Windows is the best solution to any issues

But that isn't practical for new users who've never used anything other than Windows (and don't have anything that can write to an SDCard other than Windows or their camera). Unless you're, really, saying that everyone should use the RPF pre-loaded NOBS cards.

Well, the immediate reaction to your last comment is: If you're having problems, then that's probably the best advice. Although, in the past, we've always had the problem that the hardware keeps changing (first the B1, then the B2, then the B+, …), with the result that anything pre-loaded was almost certainly out-of-date and wouldn't work. So that put the kibosh on anything pre-loaded.

However, now that (knock wood) the hardware seems to have stabilized, pre-assembled cards are not such a bad idea.

But that's not at all the point of this post. My reason for posting is that, per my previous advice, if we could figure out a foolproof/idiotproof way to get them *something* - that is, a working Raspbian system from which they could then generate whatever other system they wanted (Pidora, XBMC, RetroWhatever, Whatever…), that'd solve the problem. I thinking here something written in Javascript or something like that so that you could just click on the webpage, and it would download and install everything for you. Sort of "NOOBS on steroids." Not my area (web scripting), but it should be doable. Maybe take a page from (or attend a class sponsored by) the malware writers.

DougieLawson wrote:

fruitoftheloom wrote:....actually do not use Windows is the best solution to any issues

But that isn't practical for new users who've never used anything other than Windows (and don't have anything that can write to an SDCard other than Windows or their camera). Unless you're, really, saying that everyone should use the RPF pre-loaded NOBS cards.

I personally do not like NOOBS and my comment was trying to say that Windows NT is not ideal, as it can and does throw up many obsticles to learning something which is not "install and use" with no thought.

Joe Schmoe wrote:

DougieLawson wrote:

fruitoftheloom wrote:....actually do not use Windows is the best solution to any issues

But that isn't practical for new users who've never used anything other than Windows (and don't have anything that can write to an SDCard other than Windows or their camera). Unless you're, really, saying that everyone should use the RPF pre-loaded NOBS cards.

Well, the immediate reaction to your last comment is: If you're having problems, then that's probably the best advice. Although, in the past, we've always had the problem that the hardware keeps changing (first the B1, then the B2, then the B+, …), with the result that anything pre-loaded was almost certainly out-of-date and wouldn't work. So that put the kibosh on anything pre-loaded.

However, now that (knock wood) the hardware seems to have stabilized, pre-assembled cards are not such a bad idea.

But that's not at all the point of this post. My reason for posting is that, per my previous advice, if we could figure out a foolproof/idiotproof way to get them *something* - that is, a working Raspbian system from which they could then generate whatever other system they wanted (Pidora, XBMC, RetroWhatever, Whatever…), that'd solve the problem. I thinking here something written in Javascript or something like that so that you could just click on the webpage, and it would download and install everything for you. Sort of "NOOBS on steroids." Not my area (web scripting), but it should be doable. Maybe take a page from (or attend a class sponsored by) the malware writers.

Go to the SWAG store and buy a NOOBS Card is about as good as it get