The Best Program For Mac To Burn Sd Cards For Pi

 

Creating installation media for your operating system of choice used to be simple. Just download an ISO and burn it to CD or DVD. Now we’re using USB drives, and the process is a little different for each operating system.

You can’t just copy files from an ISO disc image directly onto your USB drive. The USB drive’s data partition needs to be made bootable, for one thing. This process will usually wipe your USB drive or SD card.

Resizing can be done from the Pi itself in the raspi-config program that starts automatically the first time you boot. Make absolutely sure the device name is that of the SD-card. If you replace it with the device name of your hard drive, your hard drive will be overwritten. The SD card post-burn. Go to the bottom and add dtoverlay=dwc2 as the last line: Save the config.txt file as plain text and then open up cmdline.txt After rootwait (the last word on the first line) add a. The easiest way to set up a Raspberry Pi on a Mac is to copy the NOOBS files from the Raspberry Pi organisation to a blank SD card. If this is the first time you've set up a Raspberry Pi, then we.

Use a USB 3.0 Drive, If You Can

USB 2.0 has been around forever, and everything supports it, but it’s notoriously slow. You’ll be much better off making the upgrade to USB 3.0 since the prices have dropped dramatically, and the speed increases are enormous… you can get 10x the speed.

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And speed really matters when you’re making a boot drive.

Editor’s Note: We use this Silicon Power USB 3.0 drive here at How-To Geek, and at $15 for a 32 GB version, it’s well worth the upgrade. You can even get it in sizes up to 128 GB if you want.

Don’t worry about compatibility, these faster drives are fully compatible with an old USB 2.0 system, you just won’t get the speed boosts. And if your desktop computer doesn’t support USB 3.0 you can always upgrade it to add support.

For Windows 7, 8, or 10

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Use Microsoft’s own Windows USB/DVD download tool to create a bootable drive you can install Windows from. You’ll need a Windows installer ISO file to run this tool. If you don’t have one, you can download Windows 10, 8, or 7 installation media for free — you’ll need a legitimate product key to use them, though.

Provide the ISO file and a USB flash drive and the tool will create a bootable drive.

RELATED:How to do a Clean Install of Windows 10 the Easy Way

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Alternatively, if you’re installing Windows 10, you can download an ISO or burn Windows 10 installation media directly using Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool.

From a Linux ISO

RELATED:How to Create a Bootable Linux USB Flash Drive, the Easy Way

There are many tools that can do this job for you, but we recommend a free program called Rufus—it’s faster and more reliable than many of the other tools you’ll see recommended, including UNetbootin.

Download the Linux distribution you want to use in .ISO form. Run the tool, select your desired distribution, browse to your downloaded ISO file, and choose the USB drive you want to use. The tool will do the rest. You can see a full step-by-step guide here.

You can use similar tools on Linux. For example, Ubuntu includes a Startup Disk Creator tool for creating bootable Ubuntu USB drives.

From an IMG File

Some operating system projects provide an IMG file instead of an ISO file. An IMG file is a raw disk image that needs to be written directly to a USB drive.

Use Win32 Disk Imager to write an IMG file to a USB drive or SD card. Provide a downloaded IMG file and the tool will write it directly to your drive, erasing its current contents. You can also use this tool to create IMG files from USB drives and SD cards.

Linux users can use the dd command to directly write an IMG file’s contents to a removable media device. Insert the removable media and run the following command on Ubuntu:

Replace /home/user/file.img with the path to the IMG file on your file system and /dev/sdX with the path to your USB or SD card device. Be very careful to specify the correct disk path here — if you specify the path to your system drive instead, you’ll write the contents of the image to your operating system drive and corrupt it

For DOS

RELATED:How to Create a Bootable DOS USB Drive

If you need to boot into DOS to use a low-level firmware upgrade, BIOS update, or system tool that still requires DOS for some reason, you can use the Rufus tool to create a bootable DOS USB drive.

Rufus uses FreeDOS, an open-source implementation of DOS that should run whatever DOS program you need to use.

From Mac OS X Installation Files

RELATED:How to Wipe Your Mac and Reinstall macOS from Scratch

You can create a bootable drive with Mac OS X on it by downloading the latest version of OS X from the Mac App Store. Use Apple’s included “createinstallmedia” tool in a terminal or by run the third-party DiskMaker X tool.

The Mac OS X drive can be used to install OS X on other Macs or upgrade them to the latest version without any long downloads.

From a Windows ISO for Mac

RELATED:How to Install Windows on a Mac With Boot Camp

If you plan on installing Windows on a Mac via Boot Camp, don’t bother creating a bootable USB drive in the usual way. Use your Mac’s Boot Camp tool to start setting things up and it will walk you through creating a bootable Windows installation drive with Apple’s drivers and Boot Camp utilities integrated.

You can use this drive to install Windows on multiple Macs, but don’t use it to install Windows on non-Apple PCs.

Some of these tools overlap — for example, Rufus can also be used to create bootable drives from Linux ISOs, IMG files, and even Windows ISO Files. We suggested the most popular, widely recommended tools for each task here.

Image Credit: USBMemoryDirect on Flickr

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The Raspberry Pi family of single board computers are incredibly popular among DIY enthusiasts. These tiny little computers can be used for a wide variety of projects, but one of the most common is retro gaming. There are a number of free, open-source projects focused on video game emulation, but Recalbox is one of the easiest to set up.

RecalBox is an operating system that includes a wide variety of video game consoles, arcade systems and PCs. It is one of the most popular alternatives to RetroPie and has some significant advantages.

This guide will go through the steps necessary to get RecalBox up and running on a Raspberry Pi.

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Get the Appropriate Hardware

First thing’s first. If you don’t already have a Raspberry Pi and all of the associated bits and bobs, you’ll need to purchase them. If you’re not sure what you will need, don’t worry, as we’ve got you covered.

  • Raspberry Pi – Recalbox works with the Pi 0/1/2/3
  • Micro USB power supply – make sure it delivers 2.5 AMP or more
  • MicroSD card – stick to reputable brands and look for a class 10 card. What size you’ll need depends on how many games you plan on installing. Recalbox recommends 16GB and above.
  • HDMI cable
  • Controller – Recalbox works with wireless PS3 and wired USB Xbox 360 controllers straight out of the box
  • USB keyboard – if you don’t have a controller or have one that isn’t immediately recognized by Recalbox, you’ll need the keyboard to configure it.
  • Raspberry Pi case – this isn’t necessary, but it is recommended.

There is a compatibility list available that is constantly being updated. The list features various MicroSD card manufacturers and sizes. In addition, it also includes accessories like controllers and the like. The list is a living document and is undergoing constant updating. Unfortunately, since the document is maintained by users, it is far from complete.

Note: in addition to the Raspberry Pi, Recalbox can be installed on a PC or an Odroid. For the purposes of this guide, we will be focusing on the Raspberry Pi; however, the installation process is the same regardless of hardware.

Downloading and Burning Recalbox to an SD Card

Now that you have all of your bits and pieces, you can install Recalbox. First, you’ll need to download the Recalbox image file. At the time of this writing, build 17.12.02 is the latest version of Recalbox available. Locate the image file appropriate for your hardware and download it.

Next, pop your MicroSD card into your computer and format the card to FAT32. Be aware that when you format the card it will erase any files stored on it. Once your card is formatted, download a program like Etcher or Win32DiskImager. Use the program to burn the Recalbox image file to your MicroSD card.

Finally, pop the MicroSD into your Raspberry Pi and power it on. Recalbox will automatically install. The installation process will take a few minutes.

Configuring controllers

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Now that Recalbox is installed and ready to go, you’ll need to get your controller set up properly. Some controllers, like the USB Xbox 360 controller, will work automatically. If that’s the case, congratulations! Feel free to skip on to the next section. If your controller doesn’t work, you’ll need to configure it.

To do so, plug in a USB keyboard and hit “Enter.” This will bring up the Recalbox menu. Use the arrow keys to cycle down to “Configure Input.” Hit the “A” key on your keyboard to select it. Next, select “Configure a controller” and press the “A” key again. Follow the on-screen instructions to map your controllers buttons. Be aware that Recalbox names buttons based on the Super Nintendo controller. Once you’ve mapped all of the buttons, you should be able to use your controller to navigate Recalbox. If everything is working smoothly, feel free to ditch the keyboard.

Connect to Network

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Open the Recalbox menu using the Enter key on your Keyboard or the Start button on your controller. Scroll down and select “Network Settings.” Here, you want to toggle “Enable WiFi” on. Next, select “WiFi SSID” and type the name of your network. Finally, select “WiFi Key” and input your network’s password.

Transferring ROMs

At this point you probably want to play some games. Transferring ROMs to your Recalbox can be done in one of two ways. If you’re using Windows, open a File Explorer window. In the address bar type RECALBOX to connect to your Recalbox via your network.

The Best Program For Mac To Burn Sd Cards For Pi

Double click on “share” and locate the folder named “roms.” Inside this folder you will see folders that correspond with all of the video game systems Recalbox is capable of emulating. Simply drag your game ROMs to the proper system folder.

Alternatively, you can use the Recalbox web browser interface to transfer your ROMs. To do so, open your web browser. In the address bar type “http://reacalbox.local/.” This should bring you to the web interface. Here you can manage your ROMs, BIOS files and more.

Note: the ROMs that you add will not be available until you either scrape your ROMs (see next section) or restart your Recalbox.

Scrape your ROM Collection

Scraping your ROM collection is the final step that will put the cherry on top of your Recalbox build. Doing so will provide metadata like synopses, release date info and box art for each one of your games. To begin scraping, open the menu and scroll down to “Scraper.” On the following screen scroll down to “Scrape Now.” You can change some of the settings here, but if this is your first time scraping your games, just hit “Start.”

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How long the scraping process takes will depend on how many games you have in your collection. Once it has completed, your games should now have the relevant box art and metadata.

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Recalbox combines a slick interface with a simplified setup process. Compared to RetroPie, Recalbox is faster and easier to set up, provided you’re okay with missing out on some customization options. Have you tried Recalbox? Which do you prefer: Recalbox or RetroPie? Let us know in the comments!

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