How To Boot From USB Raspberry Pi 4! NO SD CARD! Boot from SSD,USB Drive

We will be refreshing the eePROM on the raspberry pi 4 so follow this tutorial at your own risk!
In this video I show you how to set up your Raspberry Pi 4 to boot from USB using an SSD or other USB drive!
After you are all set up you do not need an SD Card in the Pi everything will run from the USB drive or SSD!

Text File with commands:

Need a Pi4?

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

sudo rpi-update

sudo reboot

sudo apt install rpi-eeprom

sudo nano /etc/default/rpi-eeprom-update

replace critical by beta

crtl-x and Y

sudo rpi-eeprom-update -d -f

you can check the bootloader version using:
vcgencmd bootloader_version

vcgencmd bootloader_config

Check for BOOTORDER=0xF41. 4 is for booting from USB and 1 is booting from the sd card.

Equipment I Use:

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THIS VIDEO IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY! DISCLAIMER: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. No Games Or Applications Are Included Or Added On Or To Any Device In This Video

[ryancausey]

Thanks for another great post Prime. I actually achieved this another way and it was very simple.
While booting I pressed and held “shift”. This directs you to the “recovery” page. There is an option on that screen to copy the SD card to and boot from the usb. So now I have my entire OS and all my files transferred to the SSD And have amazing speed. I no longer need my memory card.
Looking forward to your next video

[MrAsmodath]

Love your content, you've really got me into SBC's! My 4GB Pi 4, OC'd to 2.1Ghz, in the Argon One case, only hits 55°C after 30 mins at 100% load. I did however use some higher quality Japanese thermal pads then the stock ones, just for good measure 😆 Keep up the awesome work Sir 👍

[ArleyMcBlain]

Thank you again Estimated Time of Arrival Prime!

[christijerina]

Thanks for making the steps so clear and easy to follow. As always your videos are so well done.

[ogremgtow]

Great explanation on how to do this. I have had a Pi 4 for 2 days and got it to work the first time under Twister OS looking like a Mac.

[MrJaz]

UPDATE: Change beta to stable
And change bin to: 2020-07-16.bin

Jonathan Perez: A few weeks later and its 2020-07-31.bin now lol

[Dirtyz]

I'm planning an automotive install to run the real-time tuning software for my Megasquirt ECU. This is going to be an awesome upgrade for me!

[vng]

Really appreciate the RPi people for this new feature. Now waiting to see a 64-bit Raspbian distro (since they already have the 64-bit kernel).

[martinostlund]

This worked for me, a combination of ETA PRIME and leepspvido instructions:
I started by downloading and booting the as of 2020-May-24 latest version of Raspbian
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo rpi-update
Follow the onscreen instructions
Mine upgraded from 4.19.97-v7l+ to 5.4.42...
When it’s finished type
sudo reboot
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo rpi-update - *** Your firmware is already up to date
you can check the bootloader version using:
vcgencmd bootloader_version
Apr 16 2020 18:11:26
vcgencmd bootloader_config
BOOT_UART=0
WAKE_ON_GPIO=1
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=0
sudo apt install rpi-eeprom - rpi-eeprom is already the newest version (7.0-1)
sudo apt autoremove + y
sudo nano

replace critical by beta

Ctrl-o to save
Enter
Ctrl-x
All below in one long line:
sudo rpi-eeprom-update -d -f
sudo reboot
you can check the bootloader version using:
vcgencmd bootloader_version
May 15 2020 11:05:52
vcgencmd bootloader_config
[all]
BOOT_UART=0
WAKE_ON_GPIO=1
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=0
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
ENABLE_SELF_UPDATE=1
DISABLE_HDMI=0
SD_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=1
USB_MSD_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=1
BOOT_ORDER=0xf41
Check for BOOTORDER=0xF41. 4 is for booting from USB and 1 is booting from the SD card. Note: SD + USB present = boots from SD, USB only = boots from USB
Use ‘SD Card Copier’ to copy your favourite OS to a USB device. As I did this using Raspbian I tried that first, it worked fine on my old 80GB Intel SSD.
Next I tried Raspbian X Nighthawk Edition, the dark Win10 look-alike. This didn’t work, complaining about to old files. Booted Raspbian from SD card, copied from SD = /boot/start4.elf and fixup4.dat to USB = /media/pi/boot/*.* as hinted about by leepspvideo
Reboot, and now it worked!

[patrickregis]

Nice video self explainatory begins the hunt for "The" case that handle 2.5" drive and USB-SATA link that doesn't cost 50€ !!

[OggieDoggie]

Always enjoy your videos but this one even more for 2 reasons. First I needed a way to boot from usb so I can build myself a NAS/Plex server from my pi 4. And 2nd I caught the corner of your face in the video and glad to see your a member of the beard club also. :)

[chrisreynolds]

Out of interest (taking a hell of a risk I know), I tried the procedure on a pi3b+.... it works! Some of the commands are not acknowledged, but they do happen 😀. Update.. works on the 3b+, not the 3 for some reason. The 3 wasn't damaged in the attempt luckily

[Dirtyz]

And... I just got mine done and manually starting my MegaSquirt tuning software all from a 120GB SSD. Thanks so much!

[PatrickFalso]

Worked great. I'm using a StarTech unpowered SATA to USB3 and an ancient LiteOn SSD from an old Dell laptop. So far so good.

[Wedeemgaming]

This is alway useful information for someone looking to build a custom computer or laptop. Having a larger storage unit comes in handy!

[Brian-xfzu]

Hey man please update this video to reflect the eeprom version and new steps when you get a chance. Curious if this video is necessary anymore with latest version?

[aidanconway]

Well done mate, you have an uncanny habit of making everything very, very straightforward!! Keep up the good work!! Keep an eye on that beard! ;-p

[aaaalex]

Finally! I've been waiting for almost a year for this!

Well, I think it's now time to upgrade from my Raspberry Pi 3...

[AndrewAHayes]

This is great as I can now make use of that 1Tb image on Arcade Punks on my Pi4

[RockyBMusic]

Top, It works :-)
because the SD card slot of my RP4 was damaged, this is now the optimal solution to continue use the Raspberry