# Setting up a Raspberry Pi with NOOBS ## Overview In this tutorial, you will learn how to use NOOBS (New Out Of the Box Software) to setup your Raspberry Pi. NOOBS is a minimal disk image that can just be copied onto a newly formatted SD card. You then put it into the SD slot on the Raspberry Pi and It downloads the rest of what it needs. ![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/011/384/medium800/raspberry_pi_F01_02_5a.jpg?1380617271) # Setting up a Raspberry Pi with NOOBS ## You Will Need To get started with NOOBS, all you need is an [SD card](http://www.adafruit.com/products/102) (at least 4GB for NooBs Lite and 8GB for NooBs) and a host computer from which to download and copy the files. This can be a Windows, Mac or Linux Computer. # Setting up a Raspberry Pi with NOOBS ## Download NOOBS Download the NOOBS archive file from [http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads](http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads "Link: http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads"). Select the "Offline and Network" option. Extract the the zip file and make a note of where the extracted folder is on your file system. ![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/011/379/medium800/raspberry_pi_downloads.png?1380616226) Info: # Setting up a Raspberry Pi with NOOBS ## Copy NOOBS onto an SD Card The archive will extract to a folder called \_NOOBS\_v1\_3\_1\_ or similar, it is the contents of the folder that should be copied to the SD card, not the folder itself. The SD card should be a new SD card, or one that has just been formatted as FAT. If it's a new SD card, its ready to go.[If you are recycling an SD card, reformat it so you get the most space available with the official SD association formatting software](https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/) Simply copy the contents of the downloaded and extracted NOOBS folder onto the SD card. This will create an SD card from which the Raspberry Pi can boot. ![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/011/380/medium800/raspberry_pi_copy.png?1380616576) When you open up the SD card in your Finder/Windows/Linux computer you should see the following in the 'base' directory, they shouldn't be in a folder! ![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/011/395/medium800/raspberry_pi_noobscontents.png?1380642179) # Setting up a Raspberry Pi with NOOBS ## Boot your Pi Put the SD card containing the extracted NOOBS files into your Raspberry Pi and then power up your Raspberry Pi with a TV connected to the NTSC/PAL port or an HDMI display connected to HDMI When it boots, the window shown below will appear. From this screen, you can select which distribution you want to install. Raspbian will be selected as the default, and this is the best choice to start off with. ![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/011/381/medium800/raspberry_pi_F01_02_5a.jpg?1380616719) You will then get a warning message that the SD card will be overwritten (which is fine) and then as the distribution is installed onto the SD card you will see a progress screen accompanied by helpful information about the distribution. ![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/011/382/medium800/raspberry_pi_F01_02_5b.jpg?1380616788) Once the file copying is complete, you will get a message "Image applied successfully". When you hit RETURN the Raspberry Pi wil reboot. If you selected Raspbian (and some of the other distributions) the Raspi-Config untility will automatically run so that you can configure the new installation ([see this tutorial](http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-2-first-time-configuration/overview)). ![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/011/383/medium800/raspberry_pi_raspi-config_boot_1.png?1380617004) # Setting up a Raspberry Pi with NOOBS ## See Also For NOOBS to install correctly onto an SD card, the card must be formatted as FAT. Most SD cards are supplied ready formatted in FAT. If you are re-using an old card and need to format it as FAT, then use your operating system's tool for formatting removeable media. You can also use the SD Association's Formatting Tool, which is available for Mac and Windows and can be downloaded from here: [https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter\_4/](https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/ "Link: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter\_4/") You can find out more about NOOBS [here](http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4100). **About the Author.** As well as contributing lots of tutorials about Raspberry Pi, Arduino and now BeagleBone Black, Simon Monk writes books about open source hardware. You will find his books for sale [here](http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=adasearch&q=simon+monk "Link: http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main\_page=adasearch&q=simon+monk") at Adafruit. 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It comes with a SD adapter so you can use it with any of our shields or adapters. Preformatted to FAT so it works out of the box with our projects. Tested and works great with our In Stock [Buy Now](https://www.adafruit.com/product/1294) [Related Guides to the Product](https://learn.adafruit.com/products/1294/guides) ## Related Guides - [Adafruit Ultimate GPS with gpsd](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-ultimate-gps-on-the-raspberry-pi.md) - [Drive a 16x2 LCD with the Raspberry Pi](https://learn.adafruit.com/drive-a-16x2-lcd-directly-with-a-raspberry-pi.md) - [Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 1. Preparing an SD Card for your Raspberry Pi](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-lesson-1-preparing-and-sd-card-for-your-raspberry-pi.md) - [Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 4. GPIO Setup](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-4-gpio-setup.md) - [Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 12. Sensing Movement](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-12-sensing-movement.md) - [Press Your Button for Raspberry Pi](https://learn.adafruit.com/press-your-button-for-raspberry-pi.md) - [Read-Only Raspberry Pi](https://learn.adafruit.com/read-only-raspberry-pi.md) - [Raspberry Pi Hosting Node-Red](https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi-hosting-node-red.md) - [Synergy on Raspberry Pi](https://learn.adafruit.com/synergy-on-raspberry-pi.md) - [Introducing the Raspberry Pi Zero](https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-the-raspberry-pi-zero.md) - [Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 11. DS18B20 Temperature Sensing](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-11-ds18b20-temperature-sensing.md) - [Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 3. Network Setup](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-3-network-setup.md) - [Debugging with the Raspberry Pi WebIDE](https://learn.adafruit.com/debugging-with-the-raspberry-pi-webide.md) - [Processing on the Raspberry Pi & PiTFT](https://learn.adafruit.com/processing-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-pitft.md) - [Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 13. Power Control](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-13-power-control.md)