I've been trying to set up a Raspberry Pi 4 to boot from a SSD with no success. I've tried various methods from GParted, Parted, and the Imager.
When I tried GParted, I can't get past the Partition Table Type setup. No matter which type I select, i.e, msdos or gpt, it fails to create.
I tried "parted". Went through the "mkpart" to create partitions. Was able to "print" the partition list which I thought meant a successful creation. However, after exiting and going to the next step to format, it stated there weren't any partitions to format. Restarted "parted", typed print, and was shown the ssd as though I was just starting.
Tried copying the os image using SD copier without success.
Tried to image an SD card to boot from SSD or if none available, boot from SD. And then put the OS image of the SSD using the Raspberry Pi imager. The imager stated the OS was successfully written to the SSD. When I launched the Pi with the SSD connected, I see the blue LED on the SSD flashing and the Welcome to Raspberry Pi Desktop banner but after a significant amount of time it goes to command line with the following;
"BusyBox v1.35.0 (Debian 1: 1.35.0-4-b3) built-in shell (ash)"
"Enter 'help' for list of built-n commands"
"(initramfs)" When I type help I get a list that I don't know what to do next.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Brian Mc.
When I tried GParted, I can't get past the Partition Table Type setup. No matter which type I select, i.e, msdos or gpt, it fails to create.
I tried "parted". Went through the "mkpart" to create partitions. Was able to "print" the partition list which I thought meant a successful creation. However, after exiting and going to the next step to format, it stated there weren't any partitions to format. Restarted "parted", typed print, and was shown the ssd as though I was just starting.
Tried copying the os image using SD copier without success.
Tried to image an SD card to boot from SSD or if none available, boot from SD. And then put the OS image of the SSD using the Raspberry Pi imager. The imager stated the OS was successfully written to the SSD. When I launched the Pi with the SSD connected, I see the blue LED on the SSD flashing and the Welcome to Raspberry Pi Desktop banner but after a significant amount of time it goes to command line with the following;
"BusyBox v1.35.0 (Debian 1: 1.35.0-4-b3) built-in shell (ash)"
"Enter 'help' for list of built-n commands"
"(initramfs)" When I type help I get a list that I don't know what to do next.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Brian Mc.
Statistics: Posted by briank1179 — Thu Jun 12, 2025 10:40 pm