Chromebook Recovery Utility vs Fedora Media Writer
Chromebook Recovery Utility
support.google.com
Fedora Media Writer
fedoraproject.orgSide by side
| Figure | Chromebook Recovery Utility | Fedora Media Writer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Bootable USB Software | 7.7 (#14) | 8.0 (#7) |
| Purpose | Chromebook Recovery Utility burns a recovery image onto a separate device, such as a USB drive or SD card, for recovering a ChromeOS device. | Fedora Media Writer writes Fedora images to USB flash drives. |
| Support | Google directs users to the ChromeOS Flex Help Community and says support for certified devices is available to Chrome Enterprise, Chrome Education, or Google Workspace customers, depending on subscription. | The project asks users experiencing crashes or writing errors to open an issue on GitHub. |
| USB requirement | The ChromeOS Flex installation guide says the USB drive must have at least 8 GB of storage. | Fedora's download page says a 4GB USB flash drive is needed to get started with Fedora Media Writer. |
Plans
In their own words
Chromebook Recovery Utility
Chromebook Recovery Utility has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Fedora Media Writer
Fedora Media Writer creates bootable USB drives by writing Fedora images to them. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and can download the image before writing. A Live Fedora drive can be booted to try Fedora without making permanent changes to the computer. Getting started requires a 4GB USB flash drive.
Writing uses direct access to the device and replaces its existing contents and partition layout. Fedora Media Writer includes a Restore feature to put the drive back into a standard single-partition layout. Image checks can include comparing the USB device with the downloaded ISO or booting it and running a media check. Fedora also advises verifying downloaded images with a checksum file signed by a Fedora Project OpenPGP certificate. Installation options include Fedora's RPM package, Flathub on Linux, Windows releases, and a macOS DMG. The project identifies the software as GPL-2.0 licensed and directs users with crashes or writing errors to open a GitHub issue. It is free: free.