Database Users

Is it really worth it...?

Ok...so i have picked up my SPV M5000 which has been put aside for the last two years and have decided to show some interest in it again.
The only mod from it being original is that it is unlocked and had the changes to run Tomtom 6, apart from that it is original Orange spec.
Being a newbie on these sort of things i have been reading up on cooked roms etc and fancy having a go at an upgrade but...blind as I may be what difference can i expect and, is it really worth risking a bricked phone....what advantages are there..??
I know there are many roms out there but, now there appears to be some stable ones with plenty of feedback what rom should i go for...?
Any advice..?

Suppose it is not then..!!

Dude... you expect an answer to that question within the hour?
The advantages are pretty much that you get the next generation of an OS, with the changes in UI and visualisation that come along with it.
Let's face it, if there was no reason to want to change from WM 5 to WM 6 and higher, they wouldn't have made the newer iterations of the OS at all.
Whether or not it's worth it is pretty much up to you. Who are we to tell you what changes are worth the risks? If you are perfectly happy with your phone the way it is, there's no reason to change it. If you see the newer WM builds and think "Hey, that'd be much cooler on my phone", then obviously it's up to you to figure out whether it's worth the risk.
You said it yourself, the phone's been put aside for two years. I, personally, would think making that phone more interesting again is worth it just because it isn't put aside again.
For that matter, I like the process of tinkering as much as I do the results...
As for which ROM to use: again you said it yourself, all of them have lots of feedback posted.
Read it and decide for yourself which one sounds most fitting for your wants and needs.
Because honestly, if you can't be bothered finding out for yourself then maybe you shouldn't start a project like this.

You are just about to get one of the best HTC devices ever!!
Read the Wiki to learn hot to flash a ROM and I personally recommend Tomal ROM´s
Good luck,

Thanks guys and yes, suppose i was really answering my own questions, as in most instances I should "read the book first".

Yes it's really worth every risk...well the chances of getting bricked device is 10 in 100 and even though it gets bricked you will be able to make it work in couple of minutes... so there is no risk at all... well wm 6.X adds new features and functionality... it's way better than wm5... and try tomals v8.5 or (8.9 if you are a bit high end)... or v12 if you want the latest in the os... which is far more finger friendly ... AND BELIVE ME YOU WILL NEVER REGRATE DOING IT AND THE PHONE WON'T BE LEFT ASIDE
Cheers
Rajiv

Your honest opinions on cooked ROMs please [Front Page Article]

Hi all,
First of all, I wish to preface this by saying how appreciative I am of the assistance and wealth of knowledge I have found on this forum. Without it, I must say I would have been pretty disappointed with my HD2 n its purely stock form. Much like the appstore is the iPhone's primary selling point, I believe the customisable nature of WinMo devices is their main selling point and is the reason I chose to purchase an HD2 over an iPhone (other than the cost/Tech Specs) of course. This thread is in no way intended to take away from the amazing work our chefs do!
I would also appreciate if any "If you don't like customising, why are you here?" comments off this thread also as that is not in any way what this is about. god knows I have destroyed enough PC BIOSes and mobile phones trying to customise them or tweak them for the maximum achieveable performance before it all became so mainstream.
I know this kind of a question is going to get people into "attack the n00b" mode really quickly, but i feel it is a legitimate question which could spark some insightful and intelligent discussion.
I was just wondering what your honest opinions are regarding the use of cooked ROMs.
At present I am using an up to date stock ROM with many added tweaks including CHT1.7.1 and the tweaked graphics drivers and am more than happy with the way the phone looks and operates. there is no software that is missing from the stock ROM which I feel would benefit me in any way and the phone seems to operate quickly and seamlessly and so far I have not experienced any reliabillity issues.
With a long standing background in the electronics and software development field, I have always been quite a strong believer in the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" principal, but as I consider you guys and girls to be an intelligent bunch with a wealth of cumilative knowledge, I am interested in your opinions on the cooked VS customised stock ROM debate.
From what I can gather the benefits of a well developed cooked ROM such as EnergyROM or CleanEX ROM are as follows:
Menus are neatly organised and catagorised.
Extra software which is considered to be useful is preloaded.
Interface is tweaked (albiet usually no moreso than it can be with a few mods loaded on to a stock ROM)
UI and animation speed improvements.
The arguements against are as follows:
Risk (however low it is) of bricking your device
Compatabillity with different devices
Warrenty is voided (even though this can in most cases be avoided by flashing bck to a stock SPL)
Reliance on one person, or just a few people for updates rather than a huge company.
Personally, I have never used a cooked ROM, but I have been considering installing the EnergyROM on to my HD2 s it is the most closely matched cooked ROM to the way I have customised my stock ROM, however as I am currently quite happy with the way I have my stock ROM set up, I am wondering if there are any extra benefits that I have missed. It would almost seem that in my case, I am better off just sticking with the tweaked stock ROM as it serves all my needs and scouring pretty much any thread relating to a cooked ROM, I seem to stumble upon a LOT of bugs (hich have usually been fixed in subsequent releases).
To me it would seem that a lot of the time, the appeal of cooked ROMs is the "Elite" and "Geeky coolness" factor rather than actual functionallity.
Discuss....

Excellent post mate and I hope it's taken in the spirit it's intended and you're spared all the usual nonsense when questions are asked.
I've been on here a few months, but rarely ventured into the ROM's section, fairly competent with everything in the "Themes + Apps" section and like you, have my phone looking and performing pretty much how I'd want it.
All I'd perhaps want, and the reason I dip in here every now and then for a look, is perhaps a ROM which removes some of the redundant (for me) applications, ie Twitter, Footprints, Stocks etc to perhaps speed things up a little as my RAM is constantly at 60% and I'm getting low on internal storage memory despite installing everything which can be to the SD card.
But again, I wonder if there is perhaps more to this ROM flashing and whether I'd notice any real advantages which I'd not considered?
One other question for anyone who feels like answering, and it will seem silly. Are the softkeys in 6.5xx all aligned with the right hand one set further in than the left (ie non-symetrical), may seem a minor thing, but it just doesn't look right to me and if I was going to flash to something newer, I'd like to know if it can be changed.
Probably complete "noob" type questions, and apologies for partial hijack of the OP's thread, but as someone else had dared to ask some points that I'd like answered, I thought I'd stick my oar in and we can both be flamed together then.

Thanks for the support
I am the admin on another forum so I am not afraid or unfamiliar with flameage!
I'm looking forward to seeing what discussions this sparks

i think a VOTE would be great for this page....

Hi I would think the best advice would be that if you are happy with your ROM and you are not having any issues with it. Stick to it, this way you will have the peace of mind that your warranty is still in tact and you will not have to revert to reflashing to original stock without any risks.
Flashing on the other hand is fun and I feel the ROM cooks do a fantastic job of tweaking them so they work most efficiently. The chefs also remove programs that are not used that often which gives us more memory to install programs that we will actually use and the chefs also update to the newest builds for software which is dorment in the stock roms e.g. google maps,opera etc. If you update these on stock roms, it takes away valuable space due to the programs installed twice (you cannot usually replace the stock ROM versions and overwrite them with newer builds).
Naturally you will get issues cropping up with things going wrong and this is mainly due to the fact that the chefs use the newest builds before they are released officially so you can have a feel of new things that are put into them. I personally like to stick to one or two chefs and follow their progress, this way you will generally be ok as you will be aware of any minor problems and their fixes. If you flash many different ROMs with different chefs, you may encounter different problems with each of their ROMs and feel that ROM flashing seems to cause more problems than solutions.
I hope this clarifies some of your queries.

chiraag said:
i think a VOTE would be great for this page....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I considered it, but I thought a vote makes it a little too black and white. I'd rather a more in depth discussion on the pros/cons

Adiction!!
There's nothing wrong with stock ROM's what a little tweaking can't solve.
and there wil always be problems and things that don't suite you in a cooked ROM.
Bud if you would try it once it wil become an adiction to find the newest and/or the fastest that suite your needs the best.
if you follow the guide's the change of bricking your phone are slim bud there is always the posebilety
I think it's one of the best things of my HTC and no risk no luck.
(bud don't listen to me because i'm an addict)

Well it took a while before I flashed a cooked rom into my phone. I use Artemis roms, and those are the only one I have tried yet - and I really do not think I will ever try another since most of them have silly and ugly mods baked in.... I like the newer 6.5.5 with bigger soft buttons and the "start" down on the left. But the most important thing is speed - with artemis, everything the phone can do, the phone does it faster running Artemis than Stock rom. Often _much_ faster. Starting Opera 10 for example takes roughly 2 secs with Artemis, 5-6secs with stock...

I started to flash custom ROMS because I got sick and tired waiting for HTC to solve my problem with data connection. I tried all sorts of official and unofficial tweaks and patches without success so I decided to take the risk with the flashing adventure.
After flashing a few ROMS from different chefs I eventually found THE ONE that solved my frustrating problem out of the box. Not only that but I was also very impressed by the performance and by the chef himself - always there, always wanting to improve, always fair and balanced. So I settled for it and it's the only ROM I flash to my phone.
I would also like to add that I prefer the close to stock philosopy because I want to do the customization myself. Even so, in my opinion custom ROMS have the following advantages compared to stock:
- you have many options to chose from
- they prove to be faster and more stable
- you have LIVE support from the chef and the other users
- you get updates much, much faster and more frequently (even if beta builds)
- you get all sorts of goodies cooked in the ROM (tweaks, apps, etc.)
- with the ROM I use you also get an app built by the chef himself to tweak the ROM to your likings
- it's rather fun to do it
just my 2 cents

I'm the same as the above poster. I got sick of waiting for my mobile operator to update the ROM (O2). I had SMS problems, data connection problems, freezong problems, the list goes on.
Then i turned into a frantic flasher..up to 5 times a day, looking for the latest and greatest. I was forever setting my phone up and it was taking over my life! I even tried cooking my own with pretty decent success.
I'm now more settled and gone for a ROM thats closer to stock with a few tweaks. It does what i want and pretty quickly too. Its a million miles away from the original phone i got back in early December, but that a good thing.

on a functional level much of the surface features that cooked roms offer could in theory be done with cabs and tweaks, but some things can only be cooked in.
also, cooking in a fix or tweak means it is there from the start, so when you hard reset it the system isn't needing to be patched, so the fix is more stable.(generaly)
on another level many of the chefs really do know a thing or two about building roms and can make them smaller faster and more stable than the stock releases.

I personally never flashed a device...I have to admit that with CHT1.7.1 things been running smoothy and perfectly. The idea of removing some applications on standard ROM sounds really great like footprint,shares,music sense...which i dont use.
As Sentinel196 says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" , i guess i come from the same school in that sense.
by the way with all the cutomization available for CHT i find it really hard if people do not like their htc hd2

I do believe the HD2 is a very good compromise between 'works out of the box' and 'can tweak 'til the cows come home'. It's a modders dream but at the same time probably the only WinMobile device that I thought to myself "I might actually stick with a stock rom, it works"
Curiousity got the better of me... WITHIN HOURS... of getting the device. First off I noticed I was locked to Vodafone's stock rom (it was obviously a Vodafone customer selling on a new handset), I couldn't get the latest rom from HTC so HSPL'd it and flashed to stock 1.66. Good stuff, it was working fine for me.
Then I got curious again some days later and tried 6.5.5. I definitely prefered 6.5 to 6.5.5 and believe it feels much more 'balanced' on a device of this nature (giant screen, few hardware buttons) so decided I wanted to go back to 6.5 after some days of use. I remembered the stock rom did have a lot of 'junk' attached to it, despite operating blazing fast. I found CleanEX on here and from the description it sounded like a good compromise - the stock rom but with junk removed, more 'under the hood' tweaks added and all underlying software updated. Fantastic. I've been flashing to it 'til now and can't see me going anywhere else for the time being.
So yeah, the HD2 out of the box (for the most part, I realise some people have experienced bugs) is a decent device. However, coming here turns it into an AMAZING device capable of just about anything. Having the choice is fantastic. When people ask me about me about my HD2 Vs. the iPhone I can't help but be honest and state 'the iPhone just works', if you want the HD2 to fulfill its full potential you'll need to 'dedicate time to it and be one with your inner geek.'
For people stuck with locked down operator roms, the rom section on XDA is invaluable as it would seem o2 UK (my operator) have ONLY JUST upgraded their rom from the version people were using in Nov '09. Sorry, but that is ridiculous and no customer should have to wait that long for a device like this to have its bugs ironed out when people 'breaking the rules' can have it right off the bat with a bit of a learning curve. Just another reason why operator branded bull**** is a waste of everyone's time -- like movies being released in the US months/years before the UK in the 90s & til mid '00, it took file-sharing to fix that!
I also strongly believe if people are willing to come here and read the 'basic' threads & take a little time out, support here is absolutely second to none. Better than an RMA to HTC, better than your operators forums, just fantastic. This does however support the idea that the HD2 is somewhat another device kept alive by XDA-developers... which I'm sure will become more apparent in the future after WinPhone7 is released.
tl;dr - The HD2 is a HTC phone which, once again, benefits more than anything from the development, tweaks, mods, hacks, customizations and support given here.

Some excellent posts so far. Thanks everyone!! Looking forward to some more insight.
I'm certainly becoming more and more tempted to HSPL and flash a cooked ROM just to satisfy my inner nerd and curiosity!

Until a few weeks ago I was a stock ROM user. To be honest the stock rom was ok but just didnt seem very stable to me with resets a normal part of life. Having looked through the various ROM threads I decided to stick with a fairly stock cooked rom and chose Artemis.
After the first few days it was very apparent that this was the way forward. Artemis transformed my HD2 into what I believe the device should have been, stable and a joy to use.
I think before you can decide on a cooked ROM you need to decide on what you want a cooked ROM for. Is it for stability (in my case) or for added features such as extra tabs, preinstalled cabs etc.
I cant fault Artemis v11, is as stock as you can get with a cooked ROM and is fast, stable and very user friendly but I expect that others will have critism over this ROM against another, like I say there are many great chefs out there and its down to personal choice which is the best.

I love cooked ROMs. This is my first Win Mo device and I have to say when I first got it I was pretty disappointed(December last year). Was pretty damn buggy and slow! O2 UK didn't seem in any hurry to release any of the improved ROMs(not sure if they have even released an update now). I did the various tweaks that people have listed to improve the phone and was pretty pleased with the result. When HSPL came out I figured I would give a cooked ROM ago as if me a n00b doing a few tweaks could make my phone better imagine what pros could do! Flashed Duttys HG series and was blown away! Have been flashing them ever since (tried a few others but always come back to Duttys). It feels nice to have all the latest software bundled up and tweaked for me! Just about to flash from HG v2.5 (COM5) to HG v2.6 (COM5). Will be maybe the 20th time I have flashed my phone Gets better each time

Always cooked. Stock roms are always lacking something... cooked, especially with kitchens allow you to play around and have fun.
Now, regarding the future of cooked roms? that much is very very doubtful. I doubt we'll see many WinMo cooked roms after 2010.

I first had the default ROM 1.43 and everything was allmost OK with little glitches here and there (first of all the battery didn't last long) then I had the official 1.48 update wich I promptly applied and everything worked the same with little things improved (still terrible battery life) then after a couple of months of constants soft resets or taking out the battery for a reset I decided to try Miri's ROMS wich are great (I always prefered the close to stock) but still with battery problems until I learned I can upgrade the radio only without damaging the ROM wich I did and somewhat improved, but just a little, then I tried Dutty's wich are great roms (still close to stock and more stable at least the COM2 version) finally I decided a couple of days ago to give a try to EnergyROM which have additional software and I whent the GTX route, and I really love it, speccially since the battery is lasting me longer with the same radio update as my previous rom and with the lovelly GTX theme but some things like CHT seems to work better cooked in that installed separatedly, in my opinion I think you will have a lot of benefits using a custom ROM, but first use the original rom a couple of months to evaluate if your unit is functional (try everything: FM radio, GPS, light sensor, etc.) and then when you get to know your device try the custom rom of your choice and prepare to be amazed, once you go custom....
Good luck!

Maybe i am talking about the wrong thing here but i will say it. In the HD2 there is very little (if not nothing at all) noticeable difference between stock and custom Rom (except some registry modifications that you can do them with the stock rom as well). It is mainly in the addiction that cooking provides that you can see a difference. In the HTC Touch HD although the difference between stock and custom rom (mainly the Custom Roms that come from the HD2) is VERY VERY BIG. The last stock rom that HTC provide is 1 year old (7/4/2009) with 6.1 Windows, Black and White slider icons, Manila 1.XX etc. So in some cases i thing Custom Rom is more needed that the Stock Rom. But in the case of the ultra-fast HD2 i believe that the difference is much much smaller.

Wow - a front pager!
Sentinel196 said:
I would also appreciate if any "If you don't like customising, why are you here?"
[...]
I know this kind of a question is going to get people into "attack the n00b" mode really quickly, but i feel it is a legitimate question which could spark some insightful and intelligent discussion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sentinel196 said:
I am the admin on another forum so I am not afraid or unfamiliar with flameage!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just thought I'd share in case you hadn't noticed; despite your concerns, you managed to make the 'front cover' of XDA-Devs!
http://www.xda-developers.com/​
Next - Time Magazine?!
Good post, well deserved. Enjoying the conversation and Mass-Debating(!).
Hirshy

[Q] information overload, what do I want?

So I've had bad experiences with phone hacks in the past, namely bricking my iphone thinking I could jailbreak it only to spend the weekend learning that "oh sure it can be jailbroken, if you meet criteria A,B,C,D,A1,G4, Alpha 3, Section 12 subset 15 paragraph 9" etc etc.
Point is, I'm scarred for life now and really dont want to be doing a bunch of seemingly innocent rom flashing, only to find out because I missed the reply on page 192 of 568 that I needed version .18.1 instead of .18 and now my phone is now yet another glorious paperweight.
Youtube videos seem to indicate that you just copy an android build to your SD card and launch. I come here and theres 500 threads with 20 different builds and each build is tied to a certain radio which is tied to a certain rom which requires these 3 applications first and bla bla bla.
I want froyo 2.2 on my HD2. I dont want robotic voices. I want bluetooth and media player to work and stream to my car. I want functioning youtube. I dont want a sluggish piece of junk that is impossible to navigate. I want my 3G HSPDA connection to run as good as it does on WinMo, and I would like to be able to tether.
Is this a painless enough process? Or am I gonna go through 10 different downloads and hours of flashing and reflashing to probably ultimately end back up on WinMo to get **** done?
I mean if none of the android builds are really ready for primetime and are more or less for goofing around with then I wont bother. Im not in the mood to experiment, I still need a phone I can rely on.

I'll try to make it simple for you, having done all of the above:
1. don't do it yet (unless you are ready for some frustration)
2. touch screen unresponsive some of the time (infrequent to frequently), but I am fine with it personally
3. to guarantee problem free, you need to redo your WinMo ROM to the same as the one used by the android ROM chef, I did and it worked fine (before it did not and I got robot voice)
4. if you are ok with #1, 2, 3 then YES, all you have to do is copy the files to the SD card and boot away, you will not lose anything on the WinMo side
Hope it helps!

RunNgun42 said:
So I've had bad experiences with phone hacks in the past, namely bricking my iphone thinking I could jailbreak it only to spend the weekend learning that "oh sure it can be jailbroken, if you meet criteria A,B,C,D,A1,G4, Alpha 3, Section 12 subset 15 paragraph 9" etc etc.
Point is, I'm scarred for life now and really dont want to be doing a bunch of seemingly innocent rom flashing, only to find out because I missed the reply on page 192 of 568 that I needed version .18.1 instead of .18 and now my phone is now yet another glorious paperweight.
Youtube videos seem to indicate that you just copy an android build to your SD card and launch. I come here and theres 500 threads with 20 different builds and each build is tied to a certain radio which is tied to a certain rom which requires these 3 applications first and bla bla bla.
I want froyo 2.2 on my HD2. I dont want robotic voices. I want bluetooth and media player to work and stream to my car. I want functioning youtube. I dont want a sluggish piece of junk that is impossible to navigate. I want my 3G HSPDA connection to run as good as it does on WinMo, and I would like to be able to tether.
Is this a painless enough process? Or am I gonna go through 10 different downloads and hours of flashing and reflashing to probably ultimately end back up on WinMo to get **** done?
I mean if none of the android builds are really ready for primetime and are more or less for goofing around with then I wont bother. Im not in the mood to experiment, I still need a phone I can rely on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow were do I start.
Based on the fact that you have no info about your phone whats so ever I will assume you have a tmo us phone with atleast 2.08 radio.
Your radio will be ok if thats the case. As far as windows mobile rom its of personal choice. I've tried chuckydroid Ive tried Miri's 17 and always reverted back to a june version of energyrom that worked well for me.
The rom's and radio's you choose my help or hurt your call quality and battery life. Other than that they pretty much are just a big launcher.
Most builds you must place the folder called android In the root of the sdcard.
From there if you plan to manually run haret(the program that starts the linux kernal)
You must first selec clrad.exe( which will show no signs that it worked)
then select Haret.exe and the kernal will boot show a bunch of text then android should load.
If you should run into any problems please use the search function as not everyone has the same problem.
As far as the Iwants this is probably not ideal for you we are really just beta testers and if it works for us then it works. I didnt have robotic voices ever but I sounded like i was in a wind tunnel.
I Had sod's but I do not have them anymore My lock screen usually works every else is really hit or miss depending on the build you use.
You will have to do some searching on your own and it doesnt really sound like you are prepared.
This is the main thread that started it all It has the must info about the kernals
which is where most features are added.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7829012#post7829012
This is the thread for the build I use and Like
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=740963
Cyanogen based rom's are famous as he has given the android community alot.
shu8i does a great job of keeping us up to date
I hope that with this little bit of into you can get on the right track.
Coming from A g1 I had a hard time with winmo but I need to go back because android for the hd2 hadnt matured yet These guys have done a fantastic job getting it to work.
They have me saying I love my phone. Go in with no expectations.
Enjoy!

Well I guess my biggest confusion is, why are there so many different builds? I had the impression there was really only 1 dev team porting the actual android OS. Are the other builds just people monkeying with their work to get other features functional? I see things like "energyrom" and other "x-rom" names but dont know why I should choose one over the other.

RunNgun42 said:
Well I guess my biggest confusion is, why are there so many different builds? I had the impression there was really only 1 dev team porting the actual android OS. Are the other builds just people monkeying with their work to get other features functional? I see things like "energyrom" and other "x-rom" names but dont know why I should choose one over the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think hazard99 hit the nail on the head. If you are not prepared to do the leg work then i would say just wait for a fully functional, fully flashable android port. Pick the one you want, whether it be the rom the desire uses, one with sense, one without or the newest android rom at that time.
I was adamant i would use android but have been rather unimpressed and other than not getting wifi to work (and i understand there is a workaround for that as well) it has all worked for me? So i have switched back to my glorious energy rom and will await a final build (maybe gingerbread)
So in summation maybe you should wait also?

Read as much as you can. Anything that says sticky or ref are most important. There is more risk with flashing radios and roms so be delicate with that. At this time android builds cannot brick your phone but they can be a little buggy as development is in progress.
Good luck
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

RunNgun42 said:
Well I guess my biggest confusion is, why are there so many different builds? I had the impression there was really only 1 dev team porting the actual android OS. Are the other builds just people monkeying with their work to get other features functional? I see things like "energyrom" and other "x-rom" names but dont know why I should choose one over the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What dcordes and cotulla and the guys are doing is creating a working kernal for the hd2. The builds are just are just brought over from other devices.
You have to look though all the info. You cant be told pick this one and it will be golden.
I rock shubcraft because cyanogen is the man and I believe its smooth. Darkstones with be my second fav.

[Q] Intro and a uple ??s

Hi people,
I am a noob as far as Android goes, but I am pretty good at PC stuff. I run a 3D CAD department and I've been the "unofficial" tech guy at every job I've had in the last 10 years.
That being said, I just got the HTC Hero from Sprint last weekend, Android 2.1, update 1. I have always wanted to play with Linux but have never really had the time. So, this is my first encounter with Android or Linux.
So ..... , as much as I'd love to root the phone, I'm afraid to brick it. Is there any way to get rid of all the bloatware without rooting my phone? Also, what are the chances of bricking the phone? I've read a couple "how to root" articles on the net and it doesn't seem like it would be that hard, but I LOVE this phone so far (other than battery life) and I honestly can't afford to go buy a new one at full price if I end up killing my phone.
Another question; I've seen a few people in other posts who have the HTC Hero and say they're running 2.2. How is this done? Is this something else that I would need to root the phone to accomplish?
Also, I just ordered an 8GB microSD card. My laptop has a card slot, so I'm figuring I can put the new card in the slot, connect my phone via USB, and copy everything on the phone to the new 8GB card, then just swapping the cards.
Am I correct thinking this should be as simple as it sounds, or is there more involved?
I appreciate you taking the time to read my post, and I look forward to reading/posting here on a regular basis.
Thanks,
Eric Mortenson

Hey, welcome to XDA!
It is VERY HARD to brick this phone, so don't worry....about the only way we've seen that is by flashing a GSM radio to it, so just don't do that and you'll be fine trying anything else.
There are a couple rooting methods here, and there won't be any problems at all as long as you follow the instructions. It's not as daunting as it may first seem. You do have to root to get rid of bloatware, it can't be done without rooting. I recommend this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=694572 although there are 'one-click' and 'universal' methods out there too.
The ones running Android 2.2 are doing it through a custom ROM called Cyanogenmod. Check out the Development section to find it. It doesn't have the HTC Sense UI though, so it will look and feel different than your stock 2.1. But lots of people here are using it and loving it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=755795
And yes, you should just be able to swap out the SD cards with no problems.

chromiumleaf
Thanks for the quick and helpful reply. It is greatly appreciated.
I think I am going to try to root my phone. Pre-installed "bloatware" on PCs is one of my biggest pet peeves. So, the biggest reason I have right now for rooting my phone is to get rid of the stuff I don't want/need/use.
I will probably leave the 2.1 on the phone because I love the phone so far and if as you say, it will look and feel different. Maybe I'll keep digging through the site and change my mind later. Thanks for the "heads up".
Please do me one favor, and I hate to sound ignorant (I did say earlier I was new at this), but what does "flashing a GSM radio to it" mean, and is it something I could do my mistake?
Sorry, tried doing a search so I wouldn't have to bother you but I'm just not sure.
Thanks again.
Eric

Eric_1966_FXE said:
...what does "flashing a GSM radio to it" mean, and is it something I could do my mistake?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To "flash" some code means to burn it into your phone's read-only memory. A number of things can be flashed to your phone's memory, including the radio operating code, high-level operating system code, and "kernel" (system "core") code.
What the poster meant by "flashing a GSM radio" is "downloading the code that operates the phone's radio". Our Sprint Hero phones have what is called CDMA radio hardware, while European Hero phones have GSM radio hardware. The two different radios are not compatible with each other's operating code. So if you ever download ("flash") the wrong radio code (GSM code) into your CDMA phone, that will render your radio inoperative, which will effectively brick your phone.
With that in mind, just read carefully any information relating to any system code you're considering flashing to your phone, and make SURE it's for a CDMA phone, and you'll be fine.

I loved sense and was all against even trying an aosp rom( vanilla/ stock android), but once I flashed CM6 and found beautiful widgets and launcher pro plus and dialer one I haven't looked back. The speed of my phone and the overall appearance is far better than Sense UI. Rooting the 2.1 is far easier than it was when I got mine. You had to download and type in a whole bunch of crap, now its as easy as installing an app and running it.

Thanks
Thank you to all three of you for your quick (and more importantly useful) answers.
You guys are awesome.

Go for it
I have 4 Hero's here at my home on a family plan,and mine is the only one running CM6-RC1 and they are all jealous. Every one that has a Hero at work or a different Android running 2.1 that has seen mine including a few Evo users loves the way mine looks and how fast it is. I thought in the beginning I wouldn't want to loose Sense and feared I would brick my phone as well,but these guys here are great and are a very supportive Hero community and walked me through the process. It is a lot easier now with the universal 1 click method than before,so that was what I did. The nice thing is if you do everything correctly,you can revert right back to you stock phone if you ever have to take it in for service.
Taking your time and researching all of this pretty good before deciding what to do is a good thing,but I can honestly say, there is so much more you can do once you unlock your phone than just downloading apps and bloat ware...you can actually make it work and do what you want it to do.
The chiefs here at XDA are working hard to bring us stable working Roms for everyday use,and I tip my hat to all of them and I certainly am loving how my Hero is now compared to what it was when it was stock.The RC-1 build I am running is awesome and (knock wood) haven't crashed 1x with it where I needed to do anything nor have I had any shutdowns or unexpected forced closed programs that were installed correctly.
So I say... Don't be afraid and just go for it.. you can still have it similar to what it is now,or you can see what aosp is all about like many here have and try it.That's the beauty of Rooting...YOU have the choice of what is on your phone..not someone else.
Good Luck
Mac

Thanks Mac
And Thank you to all who responded.
Like I said in my intro, I am a tech geek when it comes to PCs but this is my first venture into this kind of forum.
You have all been extremely helpful and have made me feel welcome.
I only hope that I can return the favor at some point to others on XDA.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.
Thanks again,
Eric

[Q] How to identify a "clean" HD2

Hello HD2 forum
I am planning on purchasing a HD2 second hand, to ultimately dual boot windows phone 7 and ICS.
I am buying it from a local trade in store for good prices and warranty, ideally i would like to power it on in store before the purchase to check its clean and ready for me to follow the tutorials available.
Other than identifying that the phone is still running windows mobile, is there any other way for me to check that the phone has not previously been messed with? Something in the settings? Maybe i should check for a secondary mode with certain key combination on boot?
Thanks a lot!

You kinda need to define what you mean by "clean"...I assume you mean stock (and never been modded, but these are 2 different things totally unrelated to each other, more to that in a minute).
IMO the best thing you could do would be to read up on the flashing process. This will tell you what to look for, if you're looking for a stock never-been-modded phone.
But back to your question...the first major sign I'd look for would be HSPL. I'm not going to go into detail about how to find out if it's installed. You'll have to do your own homework. Read every 'how to' and 'newb' (or noob) guide on xda. XDA is an awesome site and the dev's here write awesome documentation. Do them the favor of reading it. I mean, I don't know what you're an expert on but it might get on your nerves if I ask you simple questions about that topic cause I'm too lazy to do the research myself. The research is easy, the reference material is all contained here in various forums, depending on what you want to do. I show my appreciation for that by taking advantage of it, and don't forget to thank the dev's if something is especially helpful...they like that.
As far as checking to ensure that it's still running WinMo...that's gonna be about as effective and informative (about the phone being virgin-stock) as whether or not it's raining that day or not. What's that got to do with anything? Exactly. Nothing. My HD2 is running (at the moment) a WinMo 6.5 build. But it's been flashed more than a hundred times. My daily software is an SD Android build. Before I flashed my HD2 for the first time, I probably spent about 30 hours just reading about the process and trying to understand the process of what I was going to be doing (while reading, I usually had video tutorials playing on my 2nd monitor...I'd give up the reading when it got interesting). So that's it, really...read read read. It's not fail safe. I can't tell you how many times I waited on pins and needles to find out if I had ****-canned my new €400 phone. If you have a heart condition, you just shouldn't ride this ride. ;-)
I just got a SGS2, cause I prefer Android to WinMo. WinMo's a full time job, as is flashing. Something was always not performing the way I wanted it to (efficiency or performance etc), which was why I started flashing, but it gets to be like a drug. Nothing's ever good enough, cause you wind up wanting the best. I'd flash a ROM and install all my **** (manually, one cad file at a time) and then flash a different one and have to reinstall everything again. It was even worse if I had set up my homescreens, and folders the way I wanted them...to that end, I'd highly recommend that you also research mass-installer programs. I can't think of the name of it right now, but you pack all of your cad's in one folder and this program installs all of them (which means like 65% typically, cause invariably about 1/3 will fail for one reason or another).
Even still, looking for HSPL (which is required to flash anything on the HD2) is not very indicative as to whether or not it's been previously modded. When I got my phone it was virgin/stock, of that I'm sure. I bought it from a person, and the person was not capable of performing such tasks (he wasn't so technically inclined). But in your case, you're going to have no idea. It is not only possible but also very easy to return the phone to stock by removing HSPL leaving virtually no trace of it having ever been modded (I say virtually, cause I don't THINK that it can be traced when HSPL has been removed, but I'm not a dev and not a guru). So even the absence of HSPL doesn't even really tell you that it's never been modded, it only says that if it was- then the modder was smart enough to cover his tracks.
Basically, I don't think there's an answer to your question. There are clues that say YES THIS PHONE HAS BEEN MODDED. But there's no definitive sign to look for that say THIS PHONE HAS NEVER BEEN MODDED, and you dunno if someone's gonna lie to you. But I am inviting you to prove me wrong, read the documentation and get back to me.
Good luck flashing, don't **** it up though. You'll be pissed if you brick your ****, which is easy to do. Hell, it's probably a thousand times safer to buy a phone with HSPL installed, then you can flash all you want with no risk. The main risk, is ****ing something up in the HSPL installation process, but there are ways to minimize the risk...which all amount to: read, read, read.
And if you decide you'd be interested in previously modded HD2 (with HSPL already installed), let me know, make me an offer. Mine's just a wifi media device at the moment and I'll probably be marketing it in the near future regardless. It currently has HSPL, and I haven't decided to remove it before sale or not. I saw one on Amazon last week that was at a premium price, cause the seller had Android running on it. It's a great phone if you like WinMo, but I find Android to be much less 'high maintenance' and I used to be a huge WinMo fan (I'm a 10 year WinMo user, if you can believe that!).
Regardless, this is getting long. Those are my 2pence. Be easy.
[EDIT] Hell, if you were closer I'd let you borrow mine for a few weeks to see if you like the phone. I'm a nice guy like that.

There is no way of knowning to be honest, unless you go into bootloader and you see the firmare on it has been tinkered, ( i.e. Hspl, radio, rom ) and depending if it is a eu or tmous version. good luck tho!