Chromebook C720 Recovery Mode

I cannot figure how to get the C720 into recovery mode. I have tried the ESC-REFRESH-Power button sequence and it just seems to reboot normally. In my case I am trying to enable the development mode which seems to only be possible when the recovery mode screen is present. Is there some trick to getting into recovery mode? It seems so simple according to what I have read but it does not seem to work. I have tried all types of timing on button presses and the keys definitely work. I tried inserting a USB thumb drive with a recovery image on it with no change. Not sure what else to try at this point.

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Emma_

Hello!!

@Barryb888

Please try the following steps from a different Windows computer.

Create USB flash drive on a Windows PC

1. Insert a 4GB or larger USB flash drive into the Windows PC. All data will be erased from this flash drive so be sure to remove any important files.

2. Download the Chrome OS Recovery Tool from Google:

https://dl.google.com/dl/chromeos/recovery/chromeosimagecreatorV2.exe

3. In the File Download dialog box, click Run.

4. If prompted with a security warning, click Run.

5. In the Create Chrome OS Recovery Media dialog box, begin typing the name of the Chrome device. Type Parrot and a list of names will begin to automatically populate. Select the corresponding model name that you found in step 2 of the "Find model number of your Chromebook" section above and then click Next.

6. In the Create Chrome OS Recovery Media dialog box, select your USB flash drive and then click Next.

Note: If your flash drive is less than 4GB you will not be able to select Next.

7. When prompted that all files will be erased, click OK

8. The Chrome OS image is downloaded.

9. The Chrome OS image is written to the USB flash drive

10. In the Create Chrome OS Recovery Media dialog box, click Finish.

Reinstall Chrome OS using a USB Flash Drive

1. Press and hold the esc key and refresh (F3) key and then press the power key to turn on the Chromebook.

2. The Chromebook will boot to Developer Mode. Insert the USB flash drive.

11. The integrity of the recovery media is verified. This process takes about 4 minutes.

12. The system is recovered from the USB flash drive. This process takes about 4 minutes.

13. Once system recovery is complete, unplug the USB flash drive.

14. The Chromebook restarts automatically.

15. The "Welcome!" screen will be displayed and you can complete the OOBE.

Regards,

LunaNova14

Barryb888

Hi LunaNova14,

Thanks for the detailed response.

I had largely tried the things suggested with the following exceptions. I had previoulsy downloaded the image creator EXE and tried to make the recovery image using that tool. I tried it yet again and the problem is the model number field. Nothing I type in is accepted and doing as suggested by typing in "Parrot" and waiting for options to appear to select from does not work. I am wondering if the tool has been updated and no longer works as it previously did. I am using it on Windows 10 Professional. In lieu of using thie EXE I used the Chrome browser extension to create the recovery image. It was very finicky about actually writing to the 8GB USB thumb drive I had but I eventually got it to put what I think is a valid recovery image on the thumb drive. So basically I had already did steps 1-10 but using a slightly different approach since the EXE does not appear to work because no model number I try works.

Moving on to the later steps described under "Reinstall Chrome OS using a USB Flash Drive" also seems to not go as expected. I do step #1 "Press and hold the esc key and refresh (F3) key and then press the power key to turn on the Chromebook." and the unit resets and restarts, but it does not seem to do what everyone says it will do. In my case it just reloads the existing OS and takes me to the user login screen. In step #2 you say "2. The Chromebook will boot to Developer Mode. Insert the USB flash drive." Technically I think the device boots up in Recovery Mode and at that point you could enable developer mode by pressing CTRL-D but of course I never get to that point. Since you mention inserting the USB flash drive afterwards, I am assuming that one should get to the Recovery Mode screen even if no USB flash drive is installed at boot up. The significance of this is that even if I do not have the USB flash drive installed I should still get to the Recovery Mode screen which does not happen. I would welcome additional suggestions on what I am doing wrong. It seems so straightforward but yet it is not doing what everyone says it should do.

I had not mentioned it earlier but I also tried doing a Powerwash of the device first with no change in the outcome other then when it restarts it goes to the initial OOBE screen but I still never see the Recovery Mode screen.