Okay, then let's give this a shot!
First and foremost, don't rush the process, if you follow the steps exactly there is a 0% chance to brick your phone. It is very rare that a phone will cease to function unless you're trying to achieve that goal.
This will follow the basics of the root thread, but I'll attempt to simplify things and explain what is going on. I apologize if I explain some things in too much detail, I know you said you have a low level of knowledge but I don't mean to offend you with any of these explanations!
If you have htc sync installed on your computer, you'll need to remove that. If you don't know what it is, then you probably don't have it!
Download these
drivers needed for your computer to communicate with your phone. Unzip the file by right clicking it and selecting "extract files here".
Now we need to put your phone into hboot to properly install the drivers. hboot is your phone's bootloader that allows you to access recovery and apply 'flash' updates to your phone. Flashing is simply the term used to describe overwriting some part of the phone's system with a new file.
In order to access hboot you'll have to power your phone completely down by holding the power button and selecting the "power off" option. Once your phone is completely off, hold volume down and power until the screen turns on. You should be on a white screen that says 'hboot' at the top.
At this point, plug your phone into your computer. This next part is taken directly from the unrevoked wiki because they explain it really well.
- Connect the phone to your Windows machine with a USB cable and wait for the phone to say HBOOT USB PLUG on screen.
- Open Device Manager.
- Click Start, then right click on Computer, then click Properties, then click Device Manager.
- Under Other devices, you should now see the Android 1.0 device, similar to the picture below.
Right click on
Android 1.0 and click
Update Driver Software. You should then be at the following screen:
Click on
Browse my computer for driver software.
- Click on Browse and select the Android USB Driver folder on on your computer, click ok, then click next.
- You should get a status bar indicating that the driver is installing. If you get any warnings, just click Ok.
- Your driver should install and your screen will look like below.
Click
Close and make sure
Android Bootloader Interface is listed under
Android Phone.
On your phone, make sure 'fastboot' is selected and hit power. Select 'reboot' and hit power again.
Download
unrevoked3. This is the tool that will apply S-OFF to your hboot, give you clockwork recovery, and root your phone. By default hboot is S-ON, security-on. That means only official files can be flashed to your phone. By turning S-OFF you gain the ability to flash custom files. In this case, clockwork recovery. Clockwork is an advanced recovery that expands on the stock recovery's features and allows you to flash even more files! In this case, superuser (root).
Download the latest
clockwork.
Open reflash_package.exe (unrevoked3). Click file and go to "Custome recovery..." and select the 'recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-inc_PB31IMG.zip' file. This it to make sure unrevoked uses the latest clockwork recovery on your phone.
At this point your phone should be booted up, so go into Settings, Applications, Development, and turn on USB debugging.
Exit back to the home screen and plug your phone in. Select charge only.
Unrevoked should take over and do it's thing. Be patient as your phone will reboot. Wait until unrevoked says it is done!
When it says done, close it and unplug your phone. Open your apps and you should have a 'superuser' app.
Go to Settings, Applications, Development, and turn off USB debugging if it is still on.
Power your phone down again, and boot into hboot by holding volume down + power. At the top it should say S-OFF. If it does, then everything is good to go!
Since you're already in hboot, select 'recovery' and hit power. You'll be greeted by a different recovery than before. This is clockwork!
To navigate, volume up is up, volume down is down, trackpad button is okay, and power is back.
Select 'wipe cache partition' and hit the trackpad button. Select 'yes' and hit the trackpad again to confirm. Do this twice.
Hit the power button to go back, select 'reboot system now' and hit the trackpad again.
Now we need to update your phone to gingerbread! This will give you a feel for what flashing really is and will teach you a bit about your phone.
You'll need to download some files to prepare.
Stock Recovery
Superuser 3.0.7
Gingerbread
Clockwork (you already have this from before!)
We need to make sure your SD card is FAT32, this is a system type that will allow your phone to load the files in hboot.
To do this, plug your phone into your computer and select 'Disk Drive'. Go to "My Computer" and find your SD card. It should be the smaller of the 2 removable drives, usually 1.86 GB in total. Open it, and copy all your files to your desktop so they don't get deleted. Right click the SD card, select 'Format'. A box will pop up, make sure file system says 'FAT32' and select okay. When it is done, copy your files back from your desktop.
In order to update to gingerbread your phone needs to have the stock recovery. Since unrevoked installed clockwork, we're going to have to undo this.
Rename 'Stock-recovery_PB31IMG.zip' to 'PB31IMG.zip'. This is done by right clicking the file and selecting 'rename'. On most computers you will not see the '.zip' part, this is okay. So if you only see 'Stock-recovery_PB31IMG' just rename it to 'PB31IMG'. The '.zip' is just the file extension and is hidden by your system.
Place the newly renamed PB31IMG.zip on your SD card. (not in any folders).
Power the phone down and enter hboot by holding volume down and power. PB31IMG.zip will be loaded and you will be prompted to install. Navigate with power up/down to select 'yes' and hit the power button.
When it is done, reboot the phone.
When your phone powers on, select 'disk drive' again and remove PB31IMG.zip from your SD card.
Now to apply the update!
Rename '5059e5b6c5b2.OTA_Incredible_C_Gingerbread_S_VERIZON_WWE_4.08.605.2-3.26.605.1_release_222220.zip" to 'update.zip'. Same applies as above. You may not see the '.zip' part!
Put update.zip on your SD card.
Power the phone down and enter hboot by holding volume down and power. If not prompted, navigate into recovery and select to update from update.zip. Sometimes this update gives an error and presents you with a red triangle screen. If this happens, press volume up and the power button to get to the menu. Use volume up/down to navigate to 'run update.zip from sdcard' and hit the power button to begin.
Reboot the phone!
This boot up might take a while, because it is loading your new system. Be patient and when it loads up completely, continue with the steps.
Now you're updated to gingerbread, but we need to get back clockwork recovery so we can flash superuser and get root back!
Find recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-inc_PB31IMG.zip and rename it to PB31IMG.zip. Select 'disk drive' place it on your SD card.
At this point you have a new feature on your phone called fastboot. We're going to disable this as it prevents entry into hboot. Proceed to Settings/Applications and uncheck it at the bottom.
Power the phone down and enter hboot by holding volume down and power. PB31IMG.zip will be loaded and you will be prompted to install. Navigate with power up/down to select 'yes' and hit the power button. Wait for it to finish, should be very quick. Reboot the phone.
Select disk drive on your phone.
Remove PB31IMG.zip from the SD card.
Place Superuser-3.0.7-efgh-signed.zip on your SD card. You don't need to rename this one!
Power the phone down and enter hboot by holding volume down and power. Navigate into recovery and select 'Install zip from SD card'. Hit the power button. Navigate to yes, and hit the power again to confirm. Reboot the phone.
Select disk drive on your phone.
Remove Superuser-3.0.7-efgh-signed.zip.zip from the SD card.
Check your apps drawer to make sure you have superuser in your app drawer again.
Now you are completely updated to gingerbread, and rooted!
If you have any questions or need anything clarified, feel free to ask. I will attempt to help as best I can to clear anything up.
Once you're done with this, we can see how your phone performs and what we can do about that low on space issue.
