Google’s Chrome OS-powered laptops called Chromebooks are amazing laptops if you are a light user. The android experience on a laptop along with a lot of features is a great add-on. So if you are planning to switch to a Chromebook you must know there are a lot of things that will be changed if you are currently using a Windows laptop or a Macbook. For starters the hardware isn’t that powerful on Chromebooks, the chrome OS itself is very much restricted. Although you can port Android apps on Chrome OS that still limiting a lot of users from getting the full potential of a laptop. battery life is pretty decent on chrome OS. But if you already own a Chromebook and trying to create a bootable USB on Chrome OS, it is very well possible.

A bootable USB drive is mostly used to install a new operating system on a computer. Along with that, you can also use it to change the partition and the format of the drives. The Chrome OS doesn’t have a lot of tools to create a bootable recovery drive. As chrome OS is still used by a very minute per cent of people when compared to Windows and Mac users. This is the reason why the development of apps and tools for chrome OS is very limited.

On the other hand, Google does provide its own Chromebook Recovery utility. The tool is designed to create Chrome OS recovery images for Chromebooks and it also works on Windows, Mac or a Linux system. Usually, it downloads the operating system image from its servers but it does allow users to select an image from a local drive stored on your computer.

If the hardware of your Chromebook has the potential to run Windows or Linux, then you should very well go ahead and try them, as both Linux and Windows are very powerful operating system and gives you better productivity options. So check the specifications of your Chromebook and if you think it is ca[able then you should try to install Linux or Windows.

Also, it is advised to make a backup of your Chromebook using the Chromebook Recovery Utility.

Chromebook Recovery Utility

To download and install the Chromebook recovery utility you need to go to the Chrome Web Store and search for the recovery utility.

• Chromebook Recovery Utility

Download Windows or Ubuntu Image file

So if you are planning to boot Ubuntu or Windows on your Chromebook, you need the image file which will be copied into the USB drive after that we will make it a bootable media. Ubuntu or any other Linux version is completely free and open-source which can give you a full-fledged desktop experience on your Chromebook. however, Windows 10 is not free, but you can still install the trial version on your Chromebook.

• Download Ubuntu ISO
• Download Windows ISO

Rename the file from .ISO to .BIN

No matter what image you use to install on your Chromebook, make sure that after you have finished downloading the image file of the operating system you have renamed the .iso into .bin.

As the Chromebook recovery utility cannot handle iso files and it needs to be renamed to the bin so that it can make your USB drive bootable.

Create a Bootable USB On Chromebook

If you have reached till here, we can assume that you have downloaded the image and renamed it to .bin also you are completely ready to install a different operating system on your Chromebook, so you must have taken a backup of your Chrome OS as well. To proceed further with the Chromebook Recovery utility below we have the tutorial.

1. Open the Chromebook Recovery Utility from the chrome app drawer.
2. Now, click on the settings icon in the top right and now you have to select use the local image.
3. Next, locate the image you want to flash into the drive and click OPEN. Make sure you have renamed the file otherwise it won’t show here in the list.
4. Plugin the USB Drive.
5. Select the plugged-in USB drive from the drop-down menu and then click on continue.
6. A warning will be given saying that all the data on the drive will be lost. Click on Create Now to start the process. Now it will start the process the duration will depend on the processor of your Chromebook, USB generation, read and write speed of the drive.
7. After the process has been finished click on Done.
8. That’s it you have successfully created a bootable USB drive using a Chromebook.