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.

The Raspberry Pi Imager makes this process a cakewalk Unlike the average PC, the Raspberry Pi doesn’t ship with a tweakable BIOS menu, and it's pre-configured to boot from the microSD card.

The firmware included with the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B version 1.2 introduced the possibility of booting from a USB device: before that, it was only possible to boot from an SD or microSD card.

The new firmware and bootloader could be useful to Raspberry Pi 4 owners who want the option of booting from a faster USB mass storage device instead of only doing so using an SD Card.

Historically, booting a Raspberry Pi required an SD card. However, if you follow [tynick’s] instructions, you can get a Pi 4 to boot from the USB port. Combine it with a small solid state disk ...

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

Power off your Raspberry Pi, remove the card from its slot, push it back in ensuring it's completely installed, and power the device back on. Alternatively, you may have a low-quality SD card.