From our rooting guide:
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all...ooting-dummies-guide-gingerbread-edition.html

what are nandroid backups and why are they important? well nandroid backups are a complete snapshot of the current state of your phone. it will save everything (contacts, apps and its data, emails and text messages, and any other mods or settings you have on your rom). think of nandroid backups as a safety net. if anything goes wrong or if you change your mind on a rom you do not like, you can always go back and restore a previous nandroid backup. just remember that anytime you make any changes to your phone always make a nandroid backup.

also to save space keep only a few nandroids on your card. nandroids can be pretty big depending on the rom and what you are backing up. and you can rename your nandroid backups. just make sure not to have spaces or weird symbols in the name.

when doing a nandroid backup in amon ra, make sure to keep the first three checked then check wimax (you do not need to do this all the time.) just keep one nandroid backup with your wimax keys backed up on your computer. the rest of the time when doing nandroid backups, you can just backup the first three in amon ra. also if you have your sd card partitioned (see the Partitioning and Moving Apps to the Card section for the how to's) you should select sd ext as well. this wiil also backup all your apps.

clockwork mod will backup wimax automatically.

 

a nandroid backup is a complete snapshot of your phone. it backs up everything except for the radios. you want to make sure that you do a nandroid backup every time before you flash a rom. it is also a good idea that you do one whenever you do something to your phone. it is a fail safe so that if something goes wrong or you do not like a particular rom then you can always go back if you like. just remember nandroid backups are your friend. they have saved me many times.

to do a nandroid backup you will need to be in recovery. the preferred recovery is amon ra 2.3. on amon ra2.3 there is a backup/restore option that you select. after that you will select backup. the first three items should be checked off, leave those like that and then select wimax. the rest you do not need to do.

the wimax option does not need to be done all the time. you should keep one nandroid backup saved on your computer for safe keeping. there is a really small chance that you can loose your wimax keys and thus no 4g. and unfrotunately you can't get those back once they are gone, unless you have a nandroid backup of them. also wimax backups make your nandroid backups really big.

it is a good idea to keep only one or two nandroid backups on your card as they do take up a lot of room on your card. they are found in a folder called nandroid (if you are amon ra2.3). you can even rename the nandroid backup as well. i basically add the name of the rom onto what is alread there.

i would also recommend that you read the http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all...ooting-dummies-guide-gingerbread-edition.html. it has a ton of info including info on nandroid backups as well.

hope this helps.

 

Ocn and Rxpert hit the nail on the head on what nandroids are and their importance. Bottom line is, they're a MUST before making any changes to your Evo (mods, tweaks, flashing ROM's and kernels)! If anything should *break* or you don't like a new change you just implemented a nandroid will get you back to how your Evo was prior to those changes. Start making nand-backups part of your flashing ritual quick, because it'll end up saving you from plenty of future face palms.

 

Hey there!

Amon Ra is what is called a recovery. what it is, in simple terms, is sort of an interface between you and your phone that you use to flash roms, make backups, nands. You also use it to wipe your phone before flashing and can use it to connect your phone to your pc for file transfers.

This guide that you have been referred to previously http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all...ooting-dummies-guide-gingerbread-edition.html has a section called, Life after root.

It would be a good idea to start there and pick up the tips that it offers. It tells how to install the amon ra recovery too.

Be sure and ask any and all questions that you may have. someone here will be glad to help,

 

Amon RA is a custom recovery and is pretty much the standard in the root community. It's stable, reliable, and is not buggy like Clockworkmod recovery. I haven't had my Evo for a while now so I'm not too familiar with the new root methods out, etc., but when Unrevoked and Revolutionary were the only exploits, Clockworkmod recovery was the recovery you would have when you first obtained root. You'll know if you have Amon RA, when you boot to recovery, it'll say which recovery it is.