It’s very common for users of embedded system, such as Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone and IGT-20, to use or upgrade to different OS. Of course, the first task is to get or build an OS image file, which is not covered in this article. Assuming that OS image is ready somewhere in your laptop or desktop PC running Windows, here’s the way I make the SD with the OS image file.

The title has revealed that my favorite tool is Win32 Disk Imager. It can be downloaded at sourceforge. I’ve used it in Windows 7/8/10 without problems. After installation, an icon was created on your Desktop. If not, searching in the “Program Files” or “Program Files (x86)” might help.

Double-click the icon of Win32 Disk Imager to start it. If Windows UAC (User Account Control) pops up asking for authority, just click “Yes”. And then the main window will appear soon.

Win32 Disk Imager can be used to write an OS image file of Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone and IGT-20 to an SD card, as well as backup the existing OS to a file. However, I have never saved the OS image in real cases when dealing with Beaglebone and IGT-20. In this article, IGT-20 is taken as an example. It’s exactly the same procedure for Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone and others. The following figure shows steps to write IGT-20 image to an SD, located in disk “I” in my case.

After the image file of IGT-20 and and SD card are selected, just click Write to start the writing process. Because all the data on the SD card will be destroyed, a confirm window will pop up, click Yes if you’re sure the right SD is selected.

After Yes clicked, Win32 Disk Imager starts to write the OS image file of IGT-20 to the SD card. During the writing process, the green progress bar extends. Also the writing speed is shown at the bottom left corner.

When the progress bar comes to 100%, the process finishes, and a prompt window pops up, saying Write Successful.

Upon seeing this, you’re almost done. Just click OK in the prompt window and the Exit in the main window to close Win32 Disk Imager. After that, remove the SD card from your laptop or desktop PC. Insert the SD card to IGT-20, turn on the power of IGT-20, and you’re all set.