Burning the image

Extract the Wheezy Raspbian zip file using the Windows compressed folder utility or 7-Zip.  Right-click on the compressed folder and click Extract All.

Uncheck Show extracted files when complete.

Then click Extract.

Extract the win32diskimager binary zip using the steps above but leave Show extracted files when complete checked.

Insert the SD card into your computer.

The newly created win32diskimager directory will open.  Double-click Win32DiskImager.exe.  If you’re running as a standard Windows user, you will need the admin password.

Under Image File, click the blue folder.

Select your image file.  If the default download location is used, it will be something like: C:\Users\username\Downloads\2014-01-07-wheezy-raspbian\2014-01-07-wheezy-raspbian.img

Click Open.

The Win32 Disk Imager does a good job of detecting the drive letter of your SD card.  Make SURE the drive letter under Device is correct!  Select the correct drive letter if it is not.

Click Write.

This is the last chance to verify the correct drive letter and cancel before overwriting the SD card.  Click Yes.

The image will be written to the SD card.  This may take 10 minutes depending on the speed of the SD card and writer.

Once completed, click OK.

Click Exit on Win32DiskImager.

Don’t forget to eject the SD card from the Safely remove hardware and eject media icon in the Windows system tray before removing.  Click Eject boot.  Boot is the label of the SD card.

Remove the SD card from the computer.

The image has been burned to the SD card!

More bits

Win32DiskImager is a cool little program that will write Raspberry Pi distributions to an SD Card but it can also save images (read).  This is useful to save a known project state, make copies of a project, use the SD card for other projects, or make an image to put online.