Chromebook Recovery Utility vs UNetbootin
Chromebook Recovery Utility
support.google.comUNetbootin
unetbootin.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Chromebook Recovery Utility | UNetbootin |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Bootable USB Software | 7.7 (#14) | 8.4 (#3) |
| 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. | UNetbootin creates bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. |
| 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 FAQ directs users to GitHub Issues for bug reports and GitHub Pull Requests for patches. |
Plans
In their own words
Chromebook Recovery Utility
Chromebook Recovery Utility has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
UNetbootin
UNetbootin creates bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, allowing installation without burning a CD. It can download a supported distribution or use a Linux ISO already on the computer, and the listed targets are a USB drive or hard disk. Built-in downloads include Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, Linux Mint, and FreeBSD, as well as system utilities such as Parted Magic and SystemRescueCD. The site says most Linux ISO files should work, though some require extra boot options or changes, and some cannot boot from USB as-is. Non-Linux operating system ISOs should not be expected to work because they use a different boot mechanism. UNetbootin is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is free; donations are accepted. The source code is available on GitHub under GNU GPL Version 2 or above. Linux download options include an Ubuntu PPA, 32-bit and 64-bit binaries, packages for several distributions, and source code.