This Guide assumes that you have S-off and are rooted. It gives the most basic instructions for a first time flasher, it'll also take you through a Nandroid back up using ClockworkMod v4.0.0.4.
Select a rom.
Choose from here or, click the LBC link in my sigi and download the excellent rom and put it in the root of your SD card.
Turn your phone off and just this once pull and refit the battery, just to be sure your not going to run into any problems getting into Hboot from a power on state.
Press and hold the volume down button and press the power/on button. Your now turning your phone on and entering Hboot (bootloader). You'll soon get a white screen with skateboarding types at the bottom. (Oh dear! Notice the one on the far right looks as if he is about to fall off his skateboard! This isn't important).
Wait for the green writing to flash on the screen and go away, any errors that you notice are completely NORMAL!
Press the volume down button once more to highlight RECOVERY.
Press the power button to select.
Your phone will Vibrate (or at least mine does), and after loading you'll get a black screen with purple writing.
Congratulations are in order! You've reached RECOVERY. At this point it might be useful to go outside and bark at the moon if the excitement overcomes you. It did me.
Better? Right lets get to work. This is the business end of flashing and what can't be done here can't be done at all. Well, OK actually there is Android Flasher, Fastboot Commander and lets not forget your Command Line Editor but we'll gloss over those until you've earn't your stripes.
Using the Vol button navigate to BACK UP AND RESTORE and Select using the Power button.
Select BACK UP.
Your now backing up your existing rom and creating your first Nandroid back up. Your Nandroid back up lives on your SD card and can be moved to another file for safe keeping, renamed, corrupted or deleted. If you value your information, keep it safe.
Once finished, you'll get the message "Backup complete!" All we've done to this point is back up the rom that you've been using, at this point you could hit the power button and continue using your old rom, or wipe your phone and falsh a fresh one.
Its important to remember here that if you are going to wipe your phone, your actually deleting HTC's stock rom off the phone and a factory reset will not undo this. After you have wiped, the only way to get your phone back to a factory condition is to flash (load) a stock rom back on, (RUU). You MUST wipe your phone before installing a new rom, there is no way around this.
Wiping and flashing a fresh rom is far more exciting than HTC's offering and that's why you S-offed and rooted anyway isn't it?! Here's how we do that.
Using the Vol button, highlight WIPE DATA/FACTORY RESET.
Once done, highlight WIPE CACHE PARTITION.
Normally this is enough for a normal reflash but if your recovering from a problem or an issue and want a really really good clean up, perform these optional steps:
Select MOUNTS AND STORAGE
Using your vol and power button:
format /cache
format /data
format /system
Select +++++Go Back+++++
Select Advanced
Wipe Dalvik Cache
Reboot Recovery. This step is quite important and your phone will as it says reboot, so don't worry, just let it do its thing.
Wipe Data/Factory Reset once more.
There that's all the wiping done. It's worth noting now that at this stage your phone now has no operating software installed on it! A little scary isn't it? Apart from a bootloader and a radio there's very little else on your pride and joy right now!!! YOU WIPED IT! OK, enough, lets get your new rom installed.
Select install zip from SD card.
choose zip from SD card.
Select your rom
In about 4 to 5 minutes the phone will tell you its done. (DO NOT INTERUPT THIS PROCESS), make sure you have at least 75% battery before you begin!
Are we done?
Now is the time to flash any non optional extras that your rom may need. For instance CyanogenMOD does not come with the Market or Google Apps in Update so flash them now. Refer to your rom developers page for further information on this.
Any kernels, keyboards or mods from the kitchen also get flashed here. These are a little more advanced so lets not go there right now.
Reboot system.
This is your roms intital install and always takes a while to complete. However if your waiting mor than 10 minutes at this stage consult your specific rom developers page.
Press the thanks button.
Done.
Select a rom.
Choose from here or, click the LBC link in my sigi and download the excellent rom and put it in the root of your SD card.
Turn your phone off and just this once pull and refit the battery, just to be sure your not going to run into any problems getting into Hboot from a power on state.
Press and hold the volume down button and press the power/on button. Your now turning your phone on and entering Hboot (bootloader). You'll soon get a white screen with skateboarding types at the bottom. (Oh dear! Notice the one on the far right looks as if he is about to fall off his skateboard! This isn't important).
Wait for the green writing to flash on the screen and go away, any errors that you notice are completely NORMAL!
Press the volume down button once more to highlight RECOVERY.
Press the power button to select.
Your phone will Vibrate (or at least mine does), and after loading you'll get a black screen with purple writing.
Congratulations are in order! You've reached RECOVERY. At this point it might be useful to go outside and bark at the moon if the excitement overcomes you. It did me.
Better? Right lets get to work. This is the business end of flashing and what can't be done here can't be done at all. Well, OK actually there is Android Flasher, Fastboot Commander and lets not forget your Command Line Editor but we'll gloss over those until you've earn't your stripes.
Using the Vol button navigate to BACK UP AND RESTORE and Select using the Power button.
Select BACK UP.
Your now backing up your existing rom and creating your first Nandroid back up. Your Nandroid back up lives on your SD card and can be moved to another file for safe keeping, renamed, corrupted or deleted. If you value your information, keep it safe.
Once finished, you'll get the message "Backup complete!" All we've done to this point is back up the rom that you've been using, at this point you could hit the power button and continue using your old rom, or wipe your phone and falsh a fresh one.
Its important to remember here that if you are going to wipe your phone, your actually deleting HTC's stock rom off the phone and a factory reset will not undo this. After you have wiped, the only way to get your phone back to a factory condition is to flash (load) a stock rom back on, (RUU). You MUST wipe your phone before installing a new rom, there is no way around this.
Wiping and flashing a fresh rom is far more exciting than HTC's offering and that's why you S-offed and rooted anyway isn't it?! Here's how we do that.
Using the Vol button, highlight WIPE DATA/FACTORY RESET.
Once done, highlight WIPE CACHE PARTITION.
Normally this is enough for a normal reflash but if your recovering from a problem or an issue and want a really really good clean up, perform these optional steps:
Select MOUNTS AND STORAGE
Using your vol and power button:
format /cache
format /data
format /system
Select +++++Go Back+++++
Select Advanced
Wipe Dalvik Cache
Reboot Recovery. This step is quite important and your phone will as it says reboot, so don't worry, just let it do its thing.
Wipe Data/Factory Reset once more.
There that's all the wiping done. It's worth noting now that at this stage your phone now has no operating software installed on it! A little scary isn't it? Apart from a bootloader and a radio there's very little else on your pride and joy right now!!! YOU WIPED IT! OK, enough, lets get your new rom installed.
Select install zip from SD card.
choose zip from SD card.
Select your rom
In about 4 to 5 minutes the phone will tell you its done. (DO NOT INTERUPT THIS PROCESS), make sure you have at least 75% battery before you begin!
Are we done?
Now is the time to flash any non optional extras that your rom may need. For instance CyanogenMOD does not come with the Market or Google Apps in Update so flash them now. Refer to your rom developers page for further information on this.
Any kernels, keyboards or mods from the kitchen also get flashed here. These are a little more advanced so lets not go there right now.
Reboot system.
This is your roms intital install and always takes a while to complete. However if your waiting mor than 10 minutes at this stage consult your specific rom developers page.
Press the thanks button.
Done.
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