Enabling a Raspberry Pi 3B to boot from a USB device bypasses the traditional reliance on an SD card for the operating system. This process involves specific configuration steps to direct the bootloader to initialize from a USB mass storage device instead of the onboard SD card reader. The procedure typically requires modifying a configuration bit within the Pi’s bootloader.
Booting from USB offers potential advantages such as increased storage capacity, improved read/write speeds compared to SD cards, and potentially greater reliability. The capacity benefit allows for larger operating systems or more data storage. The performance gains can lead to faster boot times and improved application responsiveness. Historically, SD cards have been a common point of failure in Raspberry Pi systems, making USB booting a way to enhance the robustness of the system.