This guide updated on 22nd December '17. Added:
  • New Raspberry Pi OS "Stretch" - replaces "Jessie"
    (Trivia fact Raspbian releases are named after Toy Story characters.)
This "getting started" guide is for:
This page, in the simplest way possible will show you how to prepare the SD card for the Raspberry Pi Node installation in these guides. For this we require five (all free) programs. They are
  1. Win32DiskImager For Windows Pc or Etcher for Mac OS
  2. 7-Zip for Windows Pc or The Unarchiver for Mac OS
  3. SDformatter for all Pcs
  4. PUTTY for Windows Pc. Not required on Mac as you already have "terminal"
  5. IPscanner for Windows Pc and Angry IP Scanner for Mac
To start with we'll erase (format) all the data from the SD card to start fresh. This is done with the SDformatter you just downloaded. The reason we need a special program to do this is that Raspberry Pi requires the card prepared (formatted) to something called Fat32, it's to do with how information is addressed on the card so it can be read. Without using this software Pcs will often restrict your options when formatting large cards and try to use a different addressing system that wont work on the Pi. So:
SDFormatter looks like this, and is very easy to use. Ensure the drive letter corresponds to the drive the card is inserted in.

Click "Option"
Change "Format size adjustment" to "ON"; Then "OK"

Then "Format"

It only takes a couple of seconds
Now the Card is empty, we need an operating system on it to give the Pi it's basic instructions. The easiest way to do this is to put an exact copy of an already working system onto the card. These exact copies are called "images" and are available to download from the Raspberry Pi website. We need the Stretch-lite 2Gb image click "download zip". 
 

Because these images are large data files, they are compressed so they are quicker to download. We need to un-compress it. 

​For this we use 7-zip or The Unarchiver depending on if you're Windows or Mac.
7-Zip Shown here.

Open either 7-zip or The Unarchiver, and navigate to where you downloaded the image. Open that file and it will look something like the picture on the left. 

Select the file and then select "Extract".

It will ask you where you want to extract the file to and will take less than a minute to process it. 
Now we have an image file ready to copy on to the card. We use Win32DiskImager next (or Etcher for Mac)
Another very easy to use program.

Select the Uncompressed image we just made, double check that the "device" is the correct drive letter of the SD card. And hit "Write"

***It will give a series of warnings and they are to be acknowledged only once you have confirmed it is definitely the SD card you are writing to. If you accidentally over-write your Pc's main drive instead it will cause BIG problems. Check first and double check***
Nearly ready!
To avoid the hassle of finding spare HDMI cables, keyboard etc, this guide uses something called SSH. It's what PUTTY is for (or Terminal on Mac).

What it enables you to do is take complete control of the Raspberry Pi and manage the installation of the rest of the guide, sending commands over the network. It also means you can put the node anywhere in the house once complete, and log in remotely with SSH and check it's progress/status without a TV or keyboard directly plugged into it. Much easier long-term.

However, I just said that it enables complete control of it remotely. This is a security problem. To solve this the people that made the system have disabled SSH. We have to tell it to enable. Again it's really simple. All we need to do is make a file called        ssh        and put it on the card. 
On a windows Pc open notepad, (found under the start menu and accessories)
Windows, Notepad
Select "file", "save as" and go to the drive with the SD card now called "BOOT"
Call the file "ssh"  (with quotes, this stops it saving it as a .txt file)

Mac
Make a text file in same location and call it    ssh    
Then go to the file properties and delete it's extension.

The Pi will look in this location when it starts. If it sees a file called ssh it enables it. 
So now we plug everything in.
Put the SD card in the Pi, an Ethernet cable will also be needed as Wifi isn't enabled yet and the power. The USB drive can be added now or later.

Turn on the Pi and give it a few seconds to start up.

We now need to know it's IP address. If you have plugged in the HDMI it will display it on the screen. The next easiest option is to look on your home router for the IP address of connected devices and identify the Pi. The third option is for people that can't do either of those.


​The IP scanning software is simple and great. You enter in where you want it to search and it will bring up every connected device in range.

The default settings will find it unless someone in your house has customized the LAN settings. It's usually between:
192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.250

In the example to the left it is showing connected devices with blue logos. I have a few connected but you should have just one called "raspberrypi"

We then take this number, (in my example '192.168.1.8' yours will probably be different) and put it in PUTTY
And that's pretty much it, this is the business end.
Enter the IP address from the step above into where it says "HostName (or IP address)" and click "open"

It ask for a username which is:                          pi

and password:                                                      raspberry

You are now logged in and ready to continue with the guide.

When you connect to Wifi later your IP address may change. You can find it again with IP Scanner.

Also now that SSH is enabled it is wise to change the default password of raspberry to something more secure. We do that near the end in a step called "Security" with a couple of other things.

If you need to pause when making these projects, it's good practice to use the command "sudo shutdown now" before turning off the power.
***Below is a bonus free application that can help you learn where files are if you are not used to how they are arranged. It's called WinSCP***

When you open WinSCP you log in just as you do with PUTTY. Enter the IP, Username and Password and you're presented with the file-system. Your host PC is on the left, the Pi's files are on the right.

If you ever need to move the blockchains around, make backups etc WinSCP supports drag and drop. It's as simple as that.

**note, when you make changes here they may not appear immediately. Use the green refresh button to see the changes