A software image for the Pi is provided by a link below. This image will be written to the microSD card with a block copy program such as “dd” in Linux or Win32DiskImager in Windows. The ZIP archive expands to about 3GB of which 2.5GB is used by the OS.
Download the image “RPZWBBYYYYMMDD.img.zip”. Unless otherwise instructed, get the most recent image. Note that YYYYMMDD indicates the year, month and day of the release.
Unzip the image.
Insert the micro SD card into the computer’s reader.
Select one of the following methods to write the image to the card. Note, this will erase any content already on the card. Copy off any files you desire to save before taking this step.
Use Win32DiskImager to write the image file RPZWBBYYYYMMDD.img to the card.
Be sure that the "Device" field indicates the SD Card reader.
Do not format the card (no matter what Windows tells you).
Eject the card using the File Manager
Skip to "First Boot"
Select the SD card in the left column
2. Use the three dot menu to select "Restore Disk Image"
3. Choose the .img file extracted from the .zip.
4. Then, "Start Restoring". -
5. Enter system password
6. Wait until the copy is complete.
7. Remove the card
Run it
Insert the microSD card in the reader
Select "Flash from file"
A file browser window will open
Select the unzipped .img file
Be sure the device is pointing to the SD card
Otherwise click "Change" and select the SD card
Click "Flash"
Wait until the write is complete
Do not format the card
(no matter what Windows tells you)
Eject the SD card.
Note that modern versions of Windows will automatically write an index file to the boot partition on the card. This will cause the verification step to fail, but will not render the card unbootable.