[Q] About to flash a ROM, Any last warnings or suggestions?

[agegsg]

After waiting for the official AT&T froyo release with the captivate, I decided to just go ahead and flash a froyo ROM. I've decided to flash the axura ROM first since i heard good things about it.

So while I'm finishing charging my phone before the flashing, is there anything I need to keep note of before flashing so that I can prevent bricking my phone? I've read up on the forums and watched the video from connexion2005 from the post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=867153.

Its pretty scary since I'm not much of a tech savy guy and this is my first android phone. Any help and suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Gr8Danes]

After waiting for the official AT&T froyo release with the captivate, I decided to just go ahead and flash a froyo ROM. I've decided to flash the axura ROM first since i heard good things about it.

So while I'm finishing charging my phone before the flashing, is there anything I need to keep note of before flashing so that I can prevent bricking my phone? I've read up on the forums and watched the video from connexion2005 from the post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=867153.

Its pretty scary since I'm not much of a tech savy guy and this is my first android phone. Any help and suggestions will be appreciated.

Backup all your apps and data with Titanium Backup. Make sure your battery is fully charged, and removing your sim and SD cards are good practice.

Have fun! You won't go back.

 

[psai]

- Backup all your files and make a nandroid backup!
- Get Odin3 One-Click and drivers to get your phone back to stock in case you brick it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731989
- There may be additional precautions you can take, so read through related threads on xda.

 

[BodaciousDrake]

After waiting for the official AT&T froyo release with the captivate, I decided to just go ahead and flash a froyo ROM. I've decided to flash the axura ROM first since i heard good things about it.

So while I'm finishing charging my phone before the flashing, is there anything I need to keep note of before flashing so that I can prevent bricking my phone? I've read up on the forums and watched the video from connexion2005 from the post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=867153.

Its pretty scary since I'm not much of a tech savy guy and this is my first android phone. Any help and suggestions will be appreciated.

If you've read as much as you claim to have read, then you're probably in good shape. It's really not an unsafe process as long as you have some idea of what you're doing. I was very nervous about it myself the first time, but since then I've probably flashed 20 roms without a problem.

A couple of things that I would tell you, if you aren't already aware:
1. MAKE SURE that BEFORE you flash, you can get into download mode from the phone being off using one of the methods. I'm sure you've seen the one-click flash back to JF6 (stock) that was posted - download that if you haven't. For me, removing the battery, sim, and ext sd, replacing the battery, and holding down both volume buttons while plugging in the USB works really well - just make sure Odin is running before you do that. If you do manage to brick it, you will want to be able to get to download mode and flash back to stock.
2. After moving to a custom rom, it is best to always flash back to stock before flashing a different rom; you can avoid a lot of potential problems this way.
3. After rooting your phone, backup the update.zip in /sdcard/ on your computer. Any time you flash back to stock, you can reinstall CWM really easily by just putting that update.zip back in /sdcard/ and choosing "reinstall packages" from the recovery menu again. Sometimes you may have to do it twice before it enters CWM.
4. OCLF in the market is, to me, the easiest and quickest way to root your phone, but the one click root method isn't much worse. Just a matter of preference, I guess.

Good luck! Come back if you have any problems.

EDIT: apparently two people replied while I was typing my response lol! But what they said is very good as well.

 

[agegsg]

Thank you for all your help. One quick question though, do I need the android ID changer?

 

[slifer315]

the biggest mistake people make is not making sure they have the button combinations to enter recovery or download. (download = hold both volume buttons own and plugging usb cable in; recovery = hold volume buttons down, then holding power until AT&T screen pops up, letting go of power but still holding both volume buttons) if either of these don't work, you must, before doing ANYTHING else, flash the stock odin one click with the button fixes; it is posted somewhere in the development forum. and no you shouldn't need the android id changer unless you want to keep the android id that your phone came with. then open the changer and click save id and flash your rom of choice. most custom roms have a script to automatically load a saved id or randomly generate one if there wasn't a saved one. good luck in all your flashing endeavors!

edit: also as bodaciousdrake mentioned previously about cwm recovery, you should always keep the update.zip that contains cwm recovery on your sd card and you'll never need to change that to something else because using cwm recovery you can flash any .zip file that you want and it does not need to be named update.zip.

 

[mindbullet]

Take out the external SD card before you accidently delete 10 GB of music you had just perfected the selection of. (not that I accidently did that... lol)

 

[BodaciousDrake]

Take out the external SD card before you accidently delete 10 GB of music you had just perfected the selection of. (not that I accidently did that... lol)

lol oops! Did that happen with a master clear, or when you flashed the rom? I have forgotten to take out the sim/ext sd once or twice but I have never had a problem...yet.

 

[majinzen]

Thank you for all your help. One quick question though, do I need the android ID changer?

Yes, you need it. Download it from the market, while on 2.1, and save your id onto your sd card. After you are on 2.2, choose Load id and it will automatically reboot.

 

[agegsg]

Yes, you need it. Download it from the market, while on 2.1, and save your id onto your sd card. After you are on 2.2, choose Load id and it will automatically reboot.

What exactly is the point in saving the phone id? Sorry I'm kinda a noobie at this and looking up things about phone id, it seems like it just is an identifier for the phone but doesn't really provide anything.

 

[agegsg]

Also, how do I get out of download mode? I've put it in download mode to make sure it works and it seem I can't get out of it... I've done the 2 volume bottons with the usb cord.

 

[slifer315]

there's another thread in this forum that answers that question perfectly. also to exit download mode you need to pull the battery out.

 

[agegsg]

there's another thread in this forum that answers that question perfectly. also to exit download mode you need to pull the battery out.

Really? just take the battery out?

 

[majinzen]

What exactly is the point in saving the phone id? Sorry I'm kinda a noobie at this and looking up things about phone id, it seems like it just is an identifier for the phone but doesn't really provide anything.

Basically, a lot of 2.2 Roms come with the same android id, 977blah... If you don't want market issues later I would suggest that you put in your original 2.1 android id. You can always search more if that answer isn't sufficient. And yes, do a battery pull to get out of download mode.

 

[agegsg]

I've master cleared but can't seem to root. Every time I try with the one click root, and I go to recovery, it said it can't find the update.zip from the /sdcard/

 

[slifer315]

yep, just pull the battery. also you don't need to root to flash roms. just grab the update.zip containing clockwordmod recovery from the thread in the development forum, put it on your sd card, boot to recovery and select reinstall pacakges. after that, reboot the phone (you might have to reinstall packages again) then you'll be ib clockwordmod recovery and you'll be able to flash any rom you want without having to change the filename.

 

[rurouni572]

I've master cleared but can't seem to root. Every time I try with the one click root, and I go to recovery, it said it can't find the update.zip from the /sdcard/

For some reason I got this too the first few times I tried to root. I then noticed that in the cmd prompt, for a split second it said failed to push update.zip or something due to privileges.

How I fixed it was ran the one-click root on windows in admin mode. It worked after that.

 

[agegsg]

Thanks guys for all your help. I got it to flash the ROM and it seems I haven't bricked my phone

Thanks again