For all you new rooters -and you guys asking the excellent question in this thread.
The question's been answered, but now a commercial -
Titanium Backup is your new best friend!
Even though you should have by now a nice nandroid backup - go here, follow instructions carefully, not casually, and make a Titanium Backup -
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-support-troubleshooting/141369-how-fix-froyo.html
You'll find you can backup your apps - your accounts, your HTC desktop scheme - all the good stuff - with Titanium Backup.
Give a few practice spins - here's the deal:
- Titanium Backup, free, gives you a one deep backup
- I'm giving advice pertinent to that -
- But also - this is a super great strategy if you pony up a donation and go full Titanium Backup (giving you more than one level)
- A level is not just one collection of things - its a collection of single-type things - here's what you do with the How-to-fix-Froyo advice - it'll become clearer reading it and trying it, but here's the overview -
- first, backup your user apps
- next, back up, one by one, those critical extras I point out in the How-to thread
- the apps will be one level deep - the accounts and other settings like your desktop will also be that same one level deep
- when an update comes out, wait a few hours or less than a day, get it rooted
- wipe your phone, install it, lose all your stuff
- start phone, enter gmail id - skip all other setup steps
- goto Market, get Titanium Backup
- tap Problems button, get new Busybox
- set up dummy desktop - a quirk, explained in how-to-fix
- goto to Titanium Backup, batch restore - apps+system data
- DONE! your phone's like before!
- stay in Titanium Backup - one by one - remove any bloatware you don't want (if using stock rooted rom)
With a little practice - you'll find you can almost do this in your sleep!
From time to time - throw a batch update of your apps - it won't affect your saved settings. From time to time, throw a backup of your desktop or whatever - it won't affect your saved apps.
Nandroid protects your whole installation - Titanium Backup protects your configuration in the face of updates.
And - fwiw - my strong opinion - back up your sd card from time to time to your PC, just as How-to-fix-Froyo recommends.
With this approach, you'll find you've protected your investment in your time to root.
In my opinion - hope this helps!
PS - With each update, at least one widget breaks and needs re-installing. Following my advice above with the stock rooted rom for 2.2 (yadda.6) - you'll need to reinstall the Google search widget and the Power Control (Android) widget. Broken widget vary by update number, I've not figured it out (in .3 I think it was the voicemail widget, in 2.1 it was something else) - but those are very minor quirks.
AND - this is most important - any backup / restore advice steps you find missing in How-to-fix-Froyo - post somewhere, or in that thread, and I'll get it into the first post.
That's a living thread, a living post, and it belongs to the community - I don't argue, I add, I'm just the editor. Many thanks in advance for helping to keep that thread - our thread - up to date.
PPS -
Regarding custom kernels - those usually require a data / dalvik wipe. If you learn to enjoy playing around with various kernels, that how-to restore advice will come in mighty handy. That's exactly the reason I use it so much myself!