Saturday, December 18, 2010

Recovering your Cr-48 to Factory Settings

Update: I'm now taking orders for pre-made Recovery SD Cards. If you're having trouble with these instructions or just don't want the added hassle, order a ready to go recovery drive for just $20 shipped!

Update 2: You may find it even easier to create the recovery drive from your Cr-48.

So you managed to get root on your Cr-48. Congratulations, you're now ready to shoot yourself in the foot and break your free laptop. Fortunately, those wonderful Google guys also made it very simple to reset your Cr-48's to it's Out of Box Experience (OOBE) factory default state. I suggest trying this recovery process before going any further with hack tips on this blog so that you're familiar with the process when you actually need to use it. Google has instructions describing the Cr-48 recovery process using a Mac or Linux computer. To bad you only have Windows huh? No problem, here's how to create the recovery USB drive or SD Card from Windows:
  1. Download Disk Imager for Windows.
  2. Extract the files somewhere. For the purpose of these instructions, we'll assume you extracted to C:\DiskImager
  3. Download the recovery image from Google. Extract it to c:\DiskImager also.
  4. Plug in a USB drive or SD Card that is at least 1gb in size (Google says 4gb but 1gb works just fine for me, thanks for pointing this out Doggydude. Update: some 1gb drives work but some don't, the image is really close to 1gb in size and drive sizes can vary by a few mb. Use a 2gb if you want to be sure it'll fit). Warning! All data on the drive will be wiped! Make sure it has nothing important on it!
  5. Run c:\DiskImager\Win32DiskImager.exe
  6. Under Device, select the drive letter of your USB drive or SD Card. Warning! Make sure you have the right drive. If you choose the wrong drive, you'll wipe out some other disk on your computer!
  7. Now click the folder icon under "Image File" and browse for the Google recovery file you downloaded and extracted. The file will be named .bin, not .img so type *.bin in the "File Name:" text entry area so that *.bin files are listed.
  8. Finally, hit the Write button. The write process will probably take 5-10 minutes depending on the speed of your drive.
  9. Now that you've got your recovery disk, you can continue to step 2 of Google's instructions to perform the actual recovery.
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33 comments:

  1. wasupJanuary 3, 2011 at 11:45 PM

    I got this to work! In step 7 where it says to run:
    "dd bs=1M if=chromeos-recovery.bin of=\.e"
    I changed it to
    "dd bs=1M if=chromeos-recovery.bin of=\\.\e:"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dalton McCabeJanuary 5, 2011 at 11:37 AM

    Can I use this from Ubuntu on the CR-48 to wipe Ubuntu off my CR-48 to install windows? Also, will it work if there's nothing wrong with my CR-48? I'm installing the PONY (I checked, I am a PONY) recovery flash drive, can I just plug it in at the screen where I press ctrl + D to boot?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jay LeeJanuary 5, 2011 at 11:39 AM

    @Dalton: Yes, that will restore your Cr-48 to factory defaults. Instead of pressing CTRL+D, just press the space bar. Your Cr-48 doesn't need to be broken to restore.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 10, 2011 at 10:47 PM

    I successfully wrote the image to my USB, but when I plug it into the CR-48 it tells me "The device you inserted does not contain Chrome OS. Try another?". It has done that with 3 different USB drives, a 4gb, 8gb, and 16gb. All three were empty and worked perfectly fine in Windows and Ubuntu..... Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJanuary 10, 2011 at 11:10 PM

    Hey I'm trying to clear the Ubuntu part on my cr-48 but it says

    Error performing system recovery!
    Prepped image for developer use.
    System recovery is complete!
    Please remove the recovery device and reboot.

    Then it just goes back like it didn't do anything.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jay LeeJanuary 11, 2011 at 9:09 AM

    @Sheldon: try redownloading and extracting Google's image, your file may be corrupted. Also make sure ImageWriter is properly seeing the USB drive and writing to it.

    @Bobby: Did you flash the Cr-48 BIOS/firmware to the regular PC version? If so, you'll need to flash back to the stock Google firmware before running the recovery.

    ReplyDelete
  7. RyanJanuary 29, 2011 at 9:43 AM

    @sheldon and anyone else who has the same problem:

    Make sure you're writing the .bin file and not the .img file that is contained within the .bin file.

    Image Writer wouldn't let me select the .bin file so I unzipped it one more level. I suspect more people may have made my mistake.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Blair HagenFebruary 15, 2011 at 8:58 PM

    YOU DONT NEED A 4 GIG FLASHDRIVE! I used a 2 gig one and it fits fine, and it works too, just my word because I broke it trying to install Ubuntu and had to recover and the 4 gig thing scared me because I dont have one that big

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jay LeeFebruary 15, 2011 at 10:18 PM

    @Doggydude: You're right, I'd actually used a 1gb SD Card this morning without issue. No idea why Google says 4gb.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ARizon4beingFebruary 17, 2011 at 12:46 PM

    @ Ryan how do you unzip it one more level because I cannot find that function in winrar.

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownFebruary 19, 2011 at 5:15 PM

    getting error:

    Error performing system recovery!
    System recovery is complete!
    Please remove the recovery device and reboot.

    The system will automatically reboot in 2 minutes...

    I followed the steps described above. Any idea?

    ReplyDelete
  12. UnknownFebruary 21, 2011 at 3:37 PM

    I also keep getting the same error.

    I installed Ubuntu as per the Easy guide. I was able to switch back and forth between Chrome and Ubuntu as the default OS.

    However, when I tried switching back to Chrome recently with the "sudo cgpt -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/sda" script, it returned a "cgpt COMMAND..." and then lists some things underneath. Before it would just accept the script and I could boot Chrome.

    I tried using the Google recover process but I get the error as above.

    I heard it might be due to partition problems because it said something about partitions.

    Please help!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jay LeeFebruary 21, 2011 at 3:38 PM

    @praveen and @William: The error means your USB recovery drive was not created correctly. Try the process again, possibly with a different USB device.

    Jya

    ReplyDelete
  14. UnknownFebruary 23, 2011 at 3:48 PM

    thanks jay lee, i think you were right. i redid the recovery drive with another usb and it restored.

    after the restore, can i reinstall ubuntu with no problems? i was wondering if the place where ubuntu was stored is also completely wiped out.

    ReplyDelete
  15. PrudhviFebruary 26, 2011 at 5:33 PM

    I've followed the instructions exactly, but when it comes time to write the .bin file to the USB drive, an error comes up saying "An error occurred when attempting to get a handle on this device" I've tried it with 3 different flash drives and it says the same thing. Also when I try to make it on Ubuntu using the Google provided recovery tool, everything goes fine but nothing is copied to the usb. Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  16. UnknownMarch 1, 2011 at 2:53 AM

    i cant change it to the *.bin on the disk imager im using windows 7 ultimate

    ReplyDelete
  17. BodyMarksMarch 1, 2011 at 6:22 PM

    "I've followed the instructions exactly, but when it comes time to write the .bin file to the USB drive, an error comes up saying "An error occurred when attempting to get a handle on this device" Error 8. I'm having the same problem as Prudhvi regarding the above in quotations. Anyone have an idea what is going on. I have tried on my laptop and my desktop same error message.

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousMarch 4, 2011 at 12:41 AM

    Same problem here as Keith is having...
    I have Windows 7 and I can't change the file type to *.bin on the disk imager.

    ReplyDelete
  19. ZackMarch 7, 2011 at 8:59 PM

    Same problem as both Keith and Brian - cannot convince DiskImager to use the .bin file instead of looking for a .img file. Help!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Jay LeeMarch 7, 2011 at 10:10 PM

    Try renaming the recovery file from .bin to .img. That should allow Disk Imager to see it without any trickery.

    If that doesn't work you can always order a recovery card using the link at the very top of this post.

    Jay

    ReplyDelete
  21. ScottMarch 8, 2011 at 11:45 AM

    In the open file dialog box for disk imager, type "*.bin" in the file name, then hit enter. the file should show up then.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The MexicanApril 8, 2011 at 11:29 PM

    So, I have followed the steps completely and I am stuck because after the computer restarts, it recognizes and automatically boots from the usb going into grub (verified image a) and it appears as if something is happening because a bunch of "y" appear at the bottom for a second and then go away, but it stays in a black screen forever. If I choose F10 and boot from USB 2.0 or the usb brand name (SanDisk Cruzer in my case) it goes into recovery image booting where it checks for official recovery image but "An unrecoverable error occurred with your security device. Please power down and try again." Going into the detail information, I see that it fails to mount the usb. What can I do the restore it back to factory settings?(currently has ubuntu)

    ReplyDelete
  23. ReuelMay 7, 2011 at 1:50 PM

    I'm having similar troubles to others here trying to recover a pristine CR-48 "FISH" after it has shown the "damaged ChromeOS" screen. I built the recovery image on an 8GB Lexar stick. Everything goes fine until I get the same messages Bobby did:

    Error performing system recovery!
    System recovery is complete!
    Please remove the recovery device and reboot.

    The system will automatically reboot in 2 minutes...

    After putting the USB drive back into my linux laptop, I notices a recovery.log file. It shows the failing command as:

    chroot /usb /usr/sbin/chromeos-install --run_as_root --yes --payload_image=/dev/sda --use_payload_kern_b
    Error: Attempt to install to a removeable device: /dev/sda

    ReplyDelete
  24. banthehyphenMay 15, 2011 at 12:54 PM

    I ran through the entire recovery process using a 4 GB flash drive - when I inserted the USB, it rebooted, verified, installed the disk image and said that it was successful. However, when it rebooted, I get the same error message again - Chrome OS is missing or damaged, please connect a recovery device (Mario FISH)

    Am I doing something wrong? Should I try with another flash drive? Please help! THanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Jay LeeMay 15, 2011 at 2:06 PM

    @banthehyphen: Is your Cr-48 in developer mode (the switch under the battery is flipped towards the gold contacts). If so, try flipping it away from the gold contacts.

    Jay

    ReplyDelete
  26. thiagoSeptember 4, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    I've been able to successfully reinstall it, but I wanted to change the owner account, so I formatted it again w/ ext3. Now when I boot from the USB drive, I can't get to anything, I'm using Verified Image A. I've tried the other options and none go through.

    When I select Verified Image A. I see a few blue squares on the screen with ý in it.

    Note: My BIOS is flashed and I need to just reinstall the stock ChromeOS.

    ReplyDelete
  27. shinji257September 11, 2011 at 7:16 PM

    Google has now added chrome://imageburner on the CR-48. You can also do it on Windows/Linux/Mac following google's instructions here --> http://www.google.com/support/chromeos/bin/answer.py?answer=1046510

    Both of them should pull the most recent stable build (not beta or dev).

    ReplyDelete
  28. BKOctober 21, 2011 at 9:23 PM

    I have the MOdel: IEC MARIO PONY 6101. I created the recovery disk and I'm getting the same error:

    Beginning system image copy. This will take some time . . .

    Error performing system recovery!
    System recovery is complete!
    Please remove the recovery device and reboot.

    The system will automatically reboot in 2 minutes...

    Someone help... this sucks! Makes me regret downloading ubuntu

    ReplyDelete
  29. IsaiahDecember 9, 2011 at 10:52 AM

    same here @bk

    ReplyDelete
  30. Zaid MansuriDecember 23, 2011 at 2:53 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  31. nutcase84November 13, 2012 at 4:32 PM

    This fails for me but it still boots into chrome OS... and still has insideh2o bios. it's weird and some stuff doesn't work.

    ReplyDelete
  32. TheDave1022January 12, 2013 at 1:59 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  33. AdornoSeptember 18, 2019 at 11:23 AM

    Any chance you might be able to help someone in 2019? Link is dead, just trying to get Chrome OS off my laptop. It's my primary still ...

    ReplyDelete

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