Help what does "flash your phone"mean?

[tbta02]

i updated to froyo on samsungs website and it works fine .is there a difference doing it this way then waiting for it from sprint .hear people say that if you do the samsung download you have to flash the phone .what does this mean?should i have waited for the sprint download ?does it void my warranty ?

 

[pastafarian]

In this case "flashing" refers to over writing the current OS with a new one. No matter the method you used, when you updated to froyo you flashed your phone. As for a difference between the OTA and the update.zip or Samsung update tool? They are supposed to be identical in function, though the update tool wipes the phones user memory while the update.zip and OTA do not. It appears that not wiping the memory may also play a large part in why the update was put on hold. If you've updated and you're not having issue, you need not worry. Enjoy your froyo Epic!

 

[dmcd7782]

i just recently figured out how to root my phone (htc wildfire s from metro pcs) the other day i dropped my phone and it cracked. im trying to retrace my steps and figure out a way to un-root it to send it in (insurnce) will flashing help this or make it worse?

thank you