Early versions of the Raspberry Pi could only boot from SD cards, but newer ones can boot from any USB device, like an external drive or USB stick. Here's how.

USB boot has been possible since the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B (v1.2), but it has only become really worthwhile with the Pi 4. Here is some information, tips, tricks and opinions explaining why and how.

You can now boot the Raspberry Pi 3 from just about anything. The documentation for these new boot modes goes over the process of how to put an image on a USB thumb drive.

Raspberry Pi Foundation is almost ready to deliver a fix for Raspberry Pi 4's lack of support for USB mass storage boot.

Requirements The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the group behind the device, recommends using a Micro-USB power supply from a reputable company that can produce 1.2A (1,200mA) at 5V.

This means the Raspberry Pi 3 can boot from a flash drive or a USB hard drive instead of a SD card.

Explore the new Raspberry Pi boot menu, a game-changer for device flexibility, allowing easy boot from USB, NVMe, and network sources.

For the Raspberry Pi 1, 2, Compute Module, and Zero, there are two boot modes – SD boot, and USB Device boot, with USB Device boot only found on the Compute Module.

It's also possible to decode which part of the boot process the Raspberry Pi is stalling at. Here's a list of what the various flashing modes from the ACT/OK LED mean. In use, we've found it ...