Hard Reset, a few queries..

[Lord Meshadieme]

I am somewhat new to the PDA scene so im trying to clarify my concepts here, let me put my questions into a scenario.

A PDA normally has RAM, ROM, Memory and Storage Card.
RAM is temporary so forget about it.
ROM usually has you bootloader (Hard SPL, amirite?), your operating system files.
Memory has your settings, other non essential operating system files, other user data.
Storage Card we already know..

So basically from the above situation, a hard reset with clear only the memory and not the ROM, in other words factory reset. BUT what about once the ROM has been flashed. it wont go back to the old factory setting just clear the memory and keep the ROM intact, is that why you recomend hard reseting after flashing...

If any of my above theory is incorrect please clarify for me thank you and sorry if this is in the wrong section.

[Lord Meshadieme]

Sorry for double post but *BUMP*

[Drakh]

There's only RAM and ROM, the ROM is flash based so it's rewritable and contents will be kept if the device is not powered, ROM is partitioned in several regions, like bootloader, radio firmware, OS firmware, and User Space; as bootloader, radio and OS firmware are critical to boot the device, the user has not direct access (write privileges) to them, just read only, User Space is fully rewritable to the user and behaves like a storage device, it's also used to personalize the OS, install programs or whatever customization, that region (User Space) is completely wiped when you do a hard-reset, so everything is back to OS defaults.
There are special tools to access Bootloader, Radio and OS regions and let the user upgrade/change them with other versions, as those regions are critical you must be careful when updating them.
Once you upgrade the original OS firmware with another one, the first is completely gone (unless you reflash it back again).
Now, upgrading Radio and OS became an easy task these days, if happens that your upgrading process fails somewhere/any reason, you can always reflash again, that's what bootloader works for.
The same can't be said about flashing Bootloader, if you happen to fail upgrading it, your phone will get bricked (you can always recover it via Jtag but that's another topic and a very complex one), fortunately, it's something you will only need to do once (install HardSPL), it's the first thing you must do before using whatever customized ROM found here; so read instructions carefully and don't hesitate to ask until feeling sure; I always use a laptop to do this first step, so power is guaranteed when the flashing is in progress.
Hope this clarifies your doubts.

[Lord Meshadieme]

Thanks alot, that clarifies alot, so basically ROM is not literal to its original meaning as being Read Only memory, atleast in the User Space portion, thats what was giving me a little conflict.

Thank you for the effort.

Regards,
Lord Meshadieme