[Solved] How to Fix Chrome OS Is Missing or Damaged?

Chrome OS is an operating system that is announced by Google. This operating system was created with the manufactures. The devices that are using Chrome OS are called Chromebooks.

Like Windows OS and Mac OS, you may encounter some kinds of system issues when using Chrome OS like Chrome OS is missing or damaged. When this error occurs, you will receive an error message like:

Chrome OS is missing or damaged.

Please insert a recovery USB stick into one of the 4 ports in the BACK of the device.

For Windows users, you may encounter the operating system is missing issue. In a situation like this, you can refer to this article to solve this problem: Here Are 5 Perfect Solutions to Missing Operating System.

Reasons for Chromebook Chrome OS Is Missing or Damaged

When you encounter this error message, you must want to know why this issue happens. Here, we will show you some reasons.

When you boot your machine, if there are some loading issues, it may boot into Chrome OS is missing or damaged. Most of the time, you encounter this error during startup. In a few cases, it occurs while you are still using your device.

The detailed error message may be different in different brands of devices. But, the error message of Chrome OS is missing or damaged is always there.

The next question you care about is how to fix Chromebook Chrome OS is missing or damaged. In the following contents, we will show you some solutions.

How to Fix Chromebook Chrome OS Is Missing or Damaged?

There are 3 methods you can use to fix Chrome OS is missing or damaged. You can try them one by one successively.

Solution 1: Reboot Your Chromebook

Rebooting a computer can always fix computer issues especially software issues. This method is also available for Chromebook.

You can press the Power button for a while until the device is turned off. After some seconds, you can press the Power button again to turn on the device. Then, you can check whether the Chrome OS is missing or damaged error went away and if the computer can boot normally.

If this method doesn’t work, you can try the next one.

Solution 2: Factory Reset Your Chromebook

Restoring your Chromebook to factory settings can also solve Chrome OS is missing or damaged. This method is useful only when you can log into your Chromebook. You can perform a powerwash to the device.

However, this method will make you lose all files on the device. So, you need to back up your data to your Google Drive beforehand.

To powerwash a Chromebook, you can follow these steps:

1. When you access the Chrome OS login screen and prior to authenticating, you need to press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R to continue.
2. Click Restart when you see the Reset this Chrome device
3. When you see the login screen again, you will see a new version. Click Powerwash to continue.
4. Click Continue.
5. Sign in with your Google account and then follow the on-screen prompts to finish the work.

If this method is not available, the next should be helpful.

Solution 3: Reinstall Chrome OS

Reinstalling Chrome OS can fully solve the issue you are facing. However, this action will wipe all files on the device. Make sure that you have backed up your important data.

To do this work, you need to prepare a normal working computer and a formatted USB flash drive with at least 4GB space. Then, you can follow these steps to perform a fresh install of Chrome OS:

1. Open the normal working computer and connect the USB drive to the computer.
2. Open the Google Chrome browser.
3. Go to Chrome Web Store and press the Add to Chrome button to download and install the Chromebook Recovery Utility.
4. Open the utility and input your Chromebook’s model number. After that, follow the on-screen prompts to download Chrome OS to the USB drive.
5. Remove the USB drive from the computer.
6. Then, you need to the rest operations to your Chromebook that is bothered by Chrome OS is missing or damaged. Power on the device and then hold Esc + Refresh on the keyboard. After that, press the Power button to boot the device into recovery mode.
7. When you see the Chrome OS is missing or damaged screen, you need to insert the USB drive to the device. Then, you can perform a reinstallation of Chrome OS following the wizard.

At last, you can restart your computer to see whether the Chrome OS is missing or damaged message is disappeared.

However, if the issue still persists, there should be some hardware issues. In a situation like this, you can contact Google or the device manufacturer for supports.