Sucessfully used WINDD to write debian image to SD card

[Davespice]

Hey everyone;

With a bit of faffing around I"ve managed to get the image written to a 4 GB SD card using dd for windows from chrysocome.net.

Image file path was; J:\debian6-17-02-2012\debian6-17-02-2012.img (this will be different for you)

SD card mounted as G: (this will be different for you)

I ran an elevated command prompt (e.g. run Command Prompt as Administrator), changed to the windd folder where I had saved the program – and used the following command;

dd bs=1M od=G: if=J:\debian6-17-02-2012\debian6-17-02-2012.img

There was a progress indicator that slowly went up in MB and when it was done, I received the output below.



This is what the drive looks like in the Windows Disk Management MMC snap in (Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management).



Windows can also access the first partition and I can see all the boot files;


arm224_start.elf
cmdline.txt
arm192_start.elf
bootcode.bin
arm128_start.elf
loader.bin
start.elf
cmdline_testmode.txt
kernel_emergency.img
kernel.img

Seems to work, just need to extend the large partition to use up the free space.  Which it looks like the windows disk management MMC snap in is not going to let me do.  But I"ll find another way.

[Helpme1986]

I did this as well (apart from checking it in Windows, asked me to format it so didnt bother looking at it)

Can only assume its done correctly and is now sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get my hands on a RPi (unless someone knows how to test it is a working SD Card without a RPi?)

[piglet]

The best thing you can do is boot up into Linux and use something like gparted to look at it to see the other partitions.

You should be able to mount them to see the content too - but I didn't try that.

A "live" disk can be used for this sort of thing without having to actually install.I use Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/download.....u/download

I didn't like using windd - win32diskimager has a nice simple gui and seemed totally fool-proof:  https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download

[Helpme1986]

Cheers Piglet, will give it a go,

Ill probably just wait for another great Tut vid from Liam and do it again just to make sure,

successfully made a "Live" XBMC beta 3 USB Key last night so cant see it being much different (though that was a ISO and not a img so I could be totally wrong)

[grumpyoldgit]

I can reiterate for all those timid Windows users out there. A live Ubuntu disk is completely safe. You can run Ubuntu in RAM from the Live CD or a memory stick without your hard disk being touched at all.

[Davespice]

I forgot to mention, you need to delete any existing partitions on the SD card before the above will work.  If you don't windd will complain there is not enough space on the disk.  Most SD cards will come already formatted with a FAT32 partition.

You can use diskpart to delete it.  Just make sure you identify the correct disk and partition by its size.

[Chris.Rowland]

I used Win32DiskImager and it seemed to generate the same arrangement of partitions and free space.

I found it easy to use; select the img file and SD card letter and start.  I didn't need to do anything to the card beforehand but it was a totally new card, unwrapped, plugged into the laptop's SD card slot and that's it.

Ext2Explore shows a /dev/sdb2 directory with what looks like a linux directory structure, not sure where the swap partition has gone.

Can I ask that the Linux Gurus cut down on the patronising comments about Windows users please.

Chris

PS the card's a Sandisk SDHC class 4, 4 Gb one, just under £9 for two, P&P Free.

[Tass]

Helpme1986 said:


I did this as well (apart from checking it in Windows, asked me to format it so didnt bother looking at it)



I got the same results with USBIt (Windows couldn't see it, prompted to format) and apparently this means it hasn't worked.

As Chris has mentioned, try Win32DiskImager - worked a treat for me.

@Davespice - just to satisfy my own curiosity now, I'm getting Access Denied error with the DD approach (even after running cmd as Administrator).  Anything else you needed to do?

[Helpme1986]

Tass said:


I got the same results with USBIt (Windows couldn't see it, prompted to format) and apparently this means it hasn't worked.

As Chris has mentioned, try Win32DiskImager - worked a treat for me.


Thanks for the heads up, will give that a go

[Davespice]

Tass said:


@Davespice - just to satisfy my own curiosity now, I'm getting Access Denied error with the DD approach (even after running cmd as Administrator).  Anything else you needed to do?



Hi Tass;

Yeah I had this once or twice, make sure there is no partition on the drive before you run the dd command - and make sure you haven't got the drive open in Windows Explorer or anything too.  I have put a little guide up on my blog which takes you through it, I'm probably going to refine it a bit though.

http://blogs.arcsoftwareconsul.....cy.com/pi/

[Tass]

Excellent - thanks.  I was trying to re-image an already imaged card, so that will probably be it!

[Tass]

Just taken a look - superb tutorial, worked a charm.  Couldn't figure out how to remove the partitions beforehand, but followed the steps you listed and it worked 1st time.

[pygmy_giant]

Wish I could say I was having the sam luck.

When using Diskpart in Vista I get "Diskpart cannot delete volumes on removable media" in response to the "delete partition" command, but I can I can delete all the partitions with the "clean" command – but then when I try to use (win)dd to write the Debian image I get "No match can be found for I:" and "invalid block size"… I"m pretty sure I haven"t got a dodgey card because I verified it with H2testw and formatted it with SDFormatter beforehand (16gb class 4 SDHC). Ho hum. Might try unetbootin.

Any advice or sympathy would be grately appreciated and solidarity to anyone else experiencing problems with this – keep calm and carry on.

[rmm200]

Have to be really thin skinned to find Git's comment patronizing. There are a lot of Windows users out there familiar with other operating systems - and there are a lot who only know Windows. For them, caution is a good thing, and letting them know it is safe is only considerate.

[pygmy_giant]

Think I know what I did wrong – might have selected the wrong format option from SDFormatter – am using a different option (OverWrite) that is taking a lot longer so could be better… Will have a crack with win32diskimager or Unetbootin after as it looks nice and cuddly. If you never hear from me again it is because I have lost interest and given up – life shouldn"t be this hard – should it?

[pygmy_giant]

Phew! 16gb takes a long time to format properly, but SDFormatter seems to have fixed all my problems – Win32DiskImager is willing to work now! 64% – 68% – 71% … 100% done. Hmm... 27.4 Mb used and 46.9Mb free? I'm sure my card says more than 74.3 Mb on the sticky label(?)... yep it does. I suspect more monkeying about with disk partitions lies ahead * sigh * life shouldn't be this hard - should it?

[rmm200]

My impression (always suspect) is that a full format is only useful to overwrite data you want destroyed. Quick format should write all the important parts - and be a heck of a lot faster.

SDFormatter is great - and should be considered required for all SD cards.

For cards of questionable provenance - like those bought on EBay - I highly recommend h2testw.exe. It verifies that your new 16GB card is not really a 4GB rebranded one. Google "SDCard Fraud".

[pygmy_giant]

I agree - now how the heck do I access the rest of my Gb? Will Debian let me use them as storage?

[rmm200]

Let me point you to the YouTube tutorial on resizing the Debian image.  He shows you how to get and use Gparted:

[rmm200]

Sometimes I hate this forum software...  It was not supposed to imbed the video...

[Joe Schmoe]

Look on the bright side:  At least it is not blasting you directly into youtube.com every time you browse by it.

(As another post recently did...)