Root Guide to flashing customs roms

[felix822]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but by flashing a new ROM, does this format my SD card as well or keep everything in tact? Thanks.

 

[sdrawkcab25]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but by flashing a new ROM, does this format my SD card as well or keep everything in tact? Thanks.

Leaves your sd card alone.

 

[felix822]

Leaves your sd card alone.

Okay thanks.

 

[felix822]

So how would I restore all contacts and texts after a flash?

 

[rsarno]

So how would I restore all contacts and texts after a flash?

this is terribly late .. im hoping you got it by now lol

Contacts: they are synced with google through your gmail account. Go into Settings>Accounts> and click on your gmail account, put a check next to Contacts

Texts: by default they are not saved. However there are apps like "SMS Backup" that let you backup all texts to your sdcard, then restore later.

 

[snakep]

OK, I'm getting ready to install my first ROM. I still have a couple of questions:

1. What exactly happens when I flash a ROM? Is it just installing a new image, or does it run a program?
2. What is rewritten? Does the entire file system get replaced -- I know the sdcard isn't touched, but what else is left alone?
3. Is it better to use ROM Manager or do it manually? If I do it manually, how do I wipe data and cache? Is it just an rm command?
4. I'm leaning toward CM7.1 right now. It seems stable and well supported. However, I've read some things that seemed to imply the camera might not work as well. Is this true, and are there other things that wouldn't be as good without Sense?

Thanks in advance for any help.
-Jeremiah

 

[sdrawkcab25]

OK, I'm getting ready to install my first ROM. I still have a couple of questions:

1. What exactly happens when I flash a ROM? Is it just installing a new image, or does it run a program?
2. What is rewritten? Does the entire file system get replaced -- I know the sdcard isn't touched, but what else is left alone?
3. Is it better to use ROM Manager or do it manually? If I do it manually, how do I wipe data and cache? Is it just an rm command?
4. I'm leaning toward CM7.1 right now. It seems stable and well supported. However, I've read some things that seemed to imply the camera might not work as well. Is this true, and are there other things that wouldn't be as good without Sense?

Thanks in advance for any help.
-Jeremiah

1/2) flashing a ROM is like installing/upgrading another OS ie... going from win xp to vista or 7. Or on the Linux side, like changing from ubuntu to xubuntu or mint etc, same general file structure/interface but different features and enhancements. Every ROM you flash overwrites the previous ROM. All the user data stays intact unless a data wipe is explicitly performed.

3) it's always better to manually flash a rom and never use rom manager to install. The necessary wipes can all easily be performed straight from recovery.

4) the only thing cm7 doesn't support, currently, is 720p recording (which isn't that great on sense anyway). I believe 720 will be coming soon though. There is also slightly more shutter lag.

 

[snakep]

Thanks for the quick response. Does this mean that my data in /mnt/emmc will be saved? This is where my music and pictures are, and I kind of think of it like /home. If I need to reload my music I can always do that, but I want to know if I need to upload my pictures to a PC first.

 

[beckettcj]

I followed these instructions and everything seemed to be working fine and then my phone shut off. When I power it back up, it freezes on the HTC screen. What did I do wrong and how do I fix it?

Luckily I backed-up so it was easy to reinstall. I'm not sure where I went wrong though.

 

[rsarno]

I followed these instructions and everything seemed to be working fine and then my phone shut off. When I power it back up, it freezes on the HTC screen. What did I do wrong and how do I fix it?

Luckily I backed-up so it was easy to reinstall. I'm not sure where I went wrong though.

I remember having this issue though i dont remember exactly what the solution was, its been forever.

If i do remember correctly, try doing the entire process again .. maybe even try a different ROM.

Better yet install Rom Manager, download and install a ROM using that for starters, see how it goes.

 

[TTT05Mikes]

Once again, a great education here. Thanks to all of you for your posts.