Hello and welcome to the forums - thanks for joining!

 

No worries

Ok - sorry... just wanted to make sure that you didn't end up messing your device up

Yeah - it does look like you have a stock ROM on your phone.

If you have a look at the following How To Create a Goldcard - TheUnlockrTheUnlockr this should explain things a little... you won't actually have to do anything to make the GoldCard (it's all done by the Hack Kit), but the video shows what's involved. From what I remember, this method uses Hex editing and you should be able to see what it does (that site is blocked on my work computer though).

I would copy the contents of the SD card to a folder on your desktop... once you have rooted your phone, you would not need the GoldCard any more, so would be able to format the SD card and copy everything back to it

I have only ever rooted my DHD, so can only comment based on my experiences with that but, if you did not put custom ROM's on your phone, then you wouldn't have had S-Off (which is a security thing), which is needed to install a custom recovery (needed to flash custom ROM's)

 

I rooted prior to the hack kit being made (in April last year). It was a lot more involved (using cmd prompt, a goldcard, downgrading, etc)... the hack kit has made things a lot easier!

You wouldn't need a goldcard if your phone was unbranded (different to unlocked), but it wouldn't actually hurt (as I think that it is an automatic part of the process when using the hack kit). I'd just copy everything from the SD card (as I mentioned above), just to be sure, as you can always copy it back on afterwards.

No... I think you are ok

I don't believe there is...I'm in work at the moment and will have a look later this afternoon when I get back in if you'd like?

EDIT - many have used the hack kit to root their phone... it really does seem to be easy. If you go for it, people have reported that it is best to do it in a linux environment - there are less issues than doing it in a Windows environment (there is a link in the hack kit to how to make an Ubuntu CD and then to run the linux environment

 

Before you do anything, can you let me know if your phone came with Gingerbread (2.3.3 or 2.3.5) or did it come with Froyo (2.2)? This may change what you need to do when you use the hack kit

 

Ok thanks Have you had any software updates since you've had it or has it always been on 2.3.5?

 

Ok, just checking because originally the hack kit would wipe the entire phone (not sd card) if it was shipped with GB. Looking at the thread now, it looks like this isn't the case anymore. Either way, if you decide to use the hack kit, read the manual a few times and read the first few posts a few times to make 100% sure it will all go smoothly, and that you are comfortable with the process

And as DURX has mentioned, using Linux (or OSX) will make it a lot easier. Using a Linux distro is just a case of burning a cd for it, booting up your computer and running one terminal command and it's done (hopefully!)

 

Looks like CDP's sorted you for now... if you have more questions, feel free to ask