Root Layman's Terms Please!!!

akazabam said:

1) Nand is just the name for the type of memory used for internal storage. ...
2) A nand backup is just that. ...
3) It's called flashing a ROM ...
You'll want to get comfortable with these terms, as they are the ones we use, and you'll hear them a lot. Hopefully this clears up their meaning a little better. If not, let me know, and I'll try and reword it for you.

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AndroidSteve said:

Can someone PLEASE translate this procedure:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/194918-rooting-dummies.html

With the human translation for the words specific to technology explained right next to them?
Example:
STEP 1: Factory Data Reset (optional, but recommended)
You may feel more comfortable completely wiping your phone and starting from scratch. This will help with the NAND (what the F is NAND and why can't you use a normal, human word or phrase instead of it?) backup later if you choose to have a fresh safe IMAGE (copy) (see, he did it here!) of your phone in case something happens when you FLASH a ROM (why does it have to be FLASHING A ROM and not INSTALL A NEW APP? or the equivalent? We all know those phrases, they make sense and we don't have to learn a new language! PLEASE!).

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VegasEVO said:

Man, I wish someone would have spoon fed me when I was a noob. Actually, I'm glad no one did because by reading and studying everything I possibly could on xda for about 4 weeks, I learned a whole hell of a lot. You guys are way too nice over here!

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evomattnc said:

Thats what confused me about this post. We are here to help and we help everyone, even with the simplest stuff they should be able to find themselves and then they get angry at the terminology used, like we made it up just to be exclusive. We'll help, just ask, dont rant at us because you havent studied enough. Try going over to xda and asking something like how to get to hboot in the dev forum lol. See how far you get. I mean look at Akaza, still helpful despite the tone of the OP.

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akazabam said:

1) nand is just the name for the type of memory used for internal storage. This type of memory is solid state, and is a type of something we call flash memory. When someone says nand, whether they mean it or not, it just means internal memory or storage. This internal memory, or nand, is broken up into sections. These sections are called partitions. Each partition is used for certain things. The system itself is on a partition designated as /system. There are others, such as /boot, that the system needs to function. These partitions on nand are locked by default, and you can't make changes to them. We call this nand locked, and security is on. This means you have s-on, as shown in hboot. Nand itself is technically not locked, or at least not the whole thing, as you can write to certain partitions on nand (internal storage), such as /data and /cache. /data is where your apps go, and /cache is a temporary holding place (more or less). In the process of rooting the phone, you will do something called unlock nand. That means you turn off security (s-on changes to s-off), and you can write to those locked partitions. Nand is nothing more than internal memory; remember that.

2) a nand backup is just that. It makes sense if you know what nand is. It is a direct copy of everything on nand, as in, a direct backup of everything on internal storage. It is save to an image, hence the usage of the term, there. An image can mean several things, but what it means here is that it is a clone of your current system. It means that you have a working copy of your system in a series of files. If you break something, and your phone is no longer bootable (after rooting and making a backup), you use the restore process in recovery to take this image (aka clone, aka backup), extract its contents, and replace the entire system with everything it contains. It will take your phone back to exactly the way it was when you made the backup.

3) it's called flashing a rom because you're *technically* "flashing" to nand (internal storage) any time you write to flash memory. It's not really installing, because you're copying an entire system to internal storage by flashing (writing) to nand (internal storage) in a partition that is normally locked (but unlocked via rooting). For all intents and purposes, it ultimately means the same thing as installing a new os.

You'll want to get comfortable with these terms, as they are the ones we use, and you'll hear them a lot. Hopefully this clears up their meaning a little better. If not, let me know, and i'll try and reword it for you.

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FU2 said:

....Not everyone wants to just follow instructions as in a "rooting for dummies" instructional. Not everyone has spent their free time smoking weekd and hacking in their mom's basement(prob the same kids that live at home rent free, drop all their money into tricking out their riceburners with high performance, aftermarket parts!). I wouldn't do anything I didn't understand fully...how hard can it be? These guys arent computer scientists for God sake!

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