No Clue, Can't Boot

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professorhedgehog: Posts: 1; Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2025 10:51 pm

Hi, I ordered two Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with a microSD card with the OS 32-bit installed and I think I broke both. I cannot boot either device. When I tried to connect one headless to the Imager app, it didn't give me an advanced options settings, so I set it to rewrite the SD card and now the SD card doesn't work at all. My computer can't recognize it. So I tried the second one, headless also but without rewriting it in the Imager app. I added a text file so it would connect to the Wi-Fi and an empty ssh text file as directed. But it also isn't recognized by the Imager app. When I plugged both into my computer for the first time, both SD cards were marked as corrupted. I have no idea where it all went wrong, I tried to follow the step-by-step and instead it is all bust. My only goal was to get the Pi-hole installed and I've been frustrated for months trying to decipher the tutorials.

User avatar mahjongg: Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator; Posts: 15301; Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:19 am

Re: No Clue, Can't Boot

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Tue Sep 16, 2025 11:13 pm

You probably formatted the sd cards wrong (with ntfs, the PI expects FAT32) go to the boot problem sticky in beginners for more info

User avatar DS256: Posts: 1290; Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:44 pm

Re: No Clue, Can't Boot

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Wed Sep 17, 2025 12:28 am

I added a text file so it would connect to the Wi-Fi and an empty ssh text file as directed.

There is no such instruction I recall when using the PI Imager https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

ame: Posts: 11622; Joined: Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:21 am

Re: No Clue, Can't Boot

Quote

Wed Sep 17, 2025 1:24 am

professorhedgehog wrote: ↑
Tue Sep 16, 2025 11:02 pm
Hi, I ordered two Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with a microSD card with the OS 32-bit installed and I think I broke both. I cannot boot either device. When I tried to connect one headless to the Imager app, it didn't give me an advanced options settings, so I set it to rewrite the SD card and now the SD card doesn't work at all. My computer can't recognize it. So I tried the second one, headless also but without rewriting it in the Imager app. I added a text file so it would connect to the Wi-Fi and an empty ssh text file as directed. But it also isn't recognized by the Imager app. When I plugged both into my computer for the first time, both SD cards were marked as corrupted. I have no idea where it all went wrong, I tried to follow the step-by-step and instead it is all bust. My only goal was to get the Pi-hole installed and I've been frustrated for months trying to decipher the tutorials.

Which step-by-step instructions did you follow?

Plug in a keyboard and screen to your Zero 2W and you can see what's going on.

Oh no, not again.

User avatar rpdom: Posts: 25276; Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 5:17 am

Re: No Clue, Can't Boot

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Wed Sep 17, 2025 8:35 am

professorhedgehog wrote: ↑
Tue Sep 16, 2025 11:02 pm
When I tried to connect one headless to the Imager app

I'm not sure I understand what you did here. It doesn't sound correct. Connect what to what and how?

so I set it to rewrite the SD card and now the SD card doesn't work at all. My computer can't recognize it.

Do you mean your computer (PC, not Pi?) came up with some sort of warning message when trying to read the card? It might be helpful if you told us what message.
It is usual for some versions of Windows to incorrectly report part of the card as bad because it doesn't understand the Linux format. Do not accept the suggestion to reformat the card! You should be able to read the first partition which will be about 500MB in size, if the card is correctly written.

If the Imager software verifies the card as good, then you should trust that.

Unreadable squiggle

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