Pi Not Booting for the First Time [solved]

[flightisfun2001]

Mod edit: we're not quite sure what this poster has done that means his Pi's still working, but please don't follow these instructions. They're wrong. Thread closed.

Hello,

I had the same problem many other people seemed to have had the very first time you try to boot up your Raspberry Pi. Here's what my solution was. When you download NOOBS from your computer, you will have a .ZIP file titled "NOOBS". If your web browser didn't already explode the .ZIP file, you will need to explode it yourself. To do this, usually you can just double-click on the file, and it will explode into files and FOLDERS! That's the key. When copying and pasting files from your computer's hard drive to the Micro SD card, DON'T COPY THE FOLDERS! Copy only the contents of each folder. You want the SD card to be the only folder the files are in, otherwise the Raspberry Pi won't do anything. When setting up your Raspberry Pi, you will need it to be hooked up to a router via a network cable. I tried NOOBS with a WiFi dongle, and it did not work. However, once you have Raspbian or any OS of your choice (based on the options NOOBS gives you), you may use a WiFi dongle by plugging it into the USB port and clicking on the no network icon on the right side of the panel. Once you have installed NOOBS correctly on your SD card, and got the operating system running, you shouldn't have anymore problems. I've been using mine and I'm writing this forum with my Raspberry Pi. Hope this works for you!

[drgeoff]

When copying and pasting files from your computer's hard drive to the Micro SD card, DON'T COPY THE FOLDERS! Copy only the contents of each folder. You want the SD card to be the only folder the files are..

WRONG

You MUST copy ALL the folders and files that were WITHIN the zip file.

Copy all the contents of the folder into which you unzip. Do NOT copy that containing folder itself.

[QuietZone]

For the umpteemillionth time, the right way to get up and running on the Pi is:

1) Download NOOBS Lite (*not* the full, heavy NOOBS, and certainly not the Raspbian "raw image")

2) On your Windows PC, with a freshly formatted SD card in the card reader/writer, at, say, J:, open up a Command Prompt and do:

C:> J:
J:> unzip C:\path\to\NoobsLite.ZIP
C:> control hotplug.dll

In the "Safely Remove" dialog, do the Safely Remove dance on the SD card, then insert the SD card into the Pi and boot it.

The underlying concept here is that people tend to tie themselves up in knots unzipping the NOOBS zip file on the Windows PC and then getting confused copying the stuff to the SD card. Much better to just unzip it in place where you will use it.