Database Users

What's your flashing ritual

I use my wicca alter, light candels, use some soothing sandlewood incense.
No seriously, I have seen this asked several times so I thought I'd start a post on what you do when you flash a rom.
My setup is Clockwork 2.6.0.1, rom manager 3.0.0.7 and I mostly run CM7. This is my process for flashing nightlies:
1. Boot to recovery
2. Backup
3. Wipe Cache
4. Wipe Dalvik
5. Wipe Battery Stats
6. Reboot
7. Run Rom Manager
8. Rename backup
9. Download CM7 nightly and check the Gapps check box
10. Let Rom Manager do it's thing
11. Enjoy CM7 goodness.
If I'm flashing to something other than CM, it goes something like this:
1. Boot to recovery
2. Backup
3. Clear data and factory reset
4. Wipe Cache
5. Wipe Dalvik
6. Wipe Battery Stats
7. Installl rom from zip on SD
8. Reboot
I usually dont have any issues, ocassionally I get stuck at the HTC white screen but a battery pull and reboot clears it up.
So how do you flash?

Charge 100%
Backup Apps with important data with Titanium Backup.
Backup the rest with Astro File Manager
Reboot to Recovery
Nandroid Backup
Wipe Everything
Flash Rom
Flash Theme (If I'm using one)
Boot Up
Sync and set preferences
Restore Apps

No backups. Just wipe with Ra 2.3 and flash away.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

titanium backup all apps I use
backup from ROM manager after deleting the previous nandroid
factory reset
wipe cache
wipe davlic
factory reset again
wipe cache again
install new rom

monkeybone12 said:
titanium backup all apps I use
backup from ROM manager after deleting the previous nandroid
factory reset
wipe cache
wipe davlic
factory reset again
wipe cache again
install new rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much the same here, except after 7 I flash Calkulin's format all zip. I had some problems with clockwork not wiping everything a while back and now I'm paranoid about it.

*Take a fresh 100% battery off the external charger (my equivalent to opening a six pack)
*Backup contacts using v cards
*backup apps using titanium backup and app brain
*backup bookmarks using bookmarks to sd
*wipe dalvik, cache partition, and wipe data
*flash rom, boot it up then flash other stuff
*then retrieve v card with contacts back ana start connecting them to their facebook again
*restore apps with titanium and leave out apps idgaf about
*enjoy, I should have drank to myn's rls 5 lol
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

[How to]99.9% No bootloops when flashing ROM

1) Boot into CWM red recovery
2) Wipe Data
3) Wipe Cache
4) Wipe dalvik cache
5) Go to mounts and storage
6) format everything that doesn't start with SD, so format boot, system, data, dbdata.
7) Install your new ROM
8) Reboot
Basically 100% chance of NO bootloops or running into errors. Don't know why I put 99.9%.Good Night~

dwight28 said:
1) Boot into CWM red recovery
2) Wipe Data
3) Wipe Cache
4) Wipe dalvik cache
5) Go to mounts and storage
6) format everything that doesn't start with SD, so format boot, system, data, dbdata.
7) Install your new ROM
8) Reboot
Basically 100% chance of NO bootloops or running into errors. Don't know why I put 99.9%.Good Night~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Offense, but there's plenty(I mean tens hundreds ) of posts saying this.
And step 6 is not necessary, I have flashed over 20 Roms and havent had to format my sd.

dwight28 said:
1) Boot into CWM red recovery
2) Wipe Data
3) Wipe Cache
4) Wipe dalvik cache
5) Go to mounts and storage
6) format everything that doesn't start with SD, so format boot, system, data, dbdata.
7) Install your new ROM
8) Reboot
Basically 100% chance of NO bootloops or running into errors. Don't know why I put 99.9%.Good Night~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks xHoLyx, you beat me to posting the same thing. And step #6 is classic gunnermike speak. I'd recognize that anywhere. Adrynalyne just released EC01 ROM and radio, and both he and GizmoDroid have posted slightly different methods for installing the new ROM and radio. Would you like to also post those exact steps in a how to thread and make it seem like you came up with the steps?

Cannot flash any ROM's

Hello, I have recently been unable to flash ROM's succesfully.
I have Clockwork MOD 4.0.0.2 installed as it came with CF-Root, and I am on stock 2.3.5 KI3.
I have tried flashing several roms, and while it says install complete, whenever it restarts, it is on a boot loop, where it won't go past the Galaxy S II bit with the yellow triangle, I have to flash the stock rom again using odin to even use the phone, I have tried to flash other recovery versions, like 4.0.0.14 and 5.1.2.6 (I think it is) but they all come up with errors mounting or getting recovery.log or something, could you please help?

Did you try to do a full wipe?
Most issues can be resolved by this.
In the CWM menu chose the factory reset/full wipe. (Don't worry it won't touch your files on the internal SD card)
Do a cache wipe and in the advanced menu do a dalvik cache wipe.
Some recommend to do this procedure twice, but you should be settled with doing it once
Let me know if it helped?

theMartyMcfly said:
Did you try to do a full wipe?
Most issues can be resolved by this.
In the CWM menu chose the factory reset/full wipe. (Don't worry it won't touch your files on the internal SD card)
Do a cache wipe and in the advanced menu do a dalvik cache wipe.
Some recommend to do this procedure twice, but you should be settled with doing it once
Let me know if it helped?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I did all that, didn't help, the progress bar gets half way and says complete :S I have downloaded the ROMs several times aswell incase they were corrupt, still didn't help.

Take out the battery, wait a bit, put it back in. Do all the wipe and formatting procedures (perhaps twice) and format the internal sd card as well and wipe the battery stats (just to be sure)
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Backup EFS folder 1st....

ultramag69 said:
Backup EFS folder 1st....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's probably not a bad idea.
Here's how:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068193

[Q] How do I FULLY wipe my device?

Might be a stupid question, but anyone know how to do this? I want to only keep PSX And neo with no other data on it (Such as games that require downloaded data, apps and etc). Wiping data on CWM doesn't wipe everything (Yes I did cache and dalvik as well), would wiping the sdcard wipe everything and leave the ROM? Hopefully someone can help, thanks
Also, if the only way of wiping brings me back to stock/unrooted, would I still have CWM installed to install custom ROMs and such still?

These are the wipes you are looking for:
1. wipe data/factory reset
2. wipe cache partition
3. mounts and storage > format sdcard
4. advanced > wipe dalvik cache
That should leave you with a empty/clean internal sd card, no data (apps, settings, etc.), and your current rom and kernel.

if you want to completely wipe everything and go back to stock Android, just use one of the toolkit and flash stock image. it will wipe everything in the phone.

Or just fast boot the images including the userdata file it'll erase the entire phone memory. Toolkits are convenient but you should know how to use fastboot too it saved me when my recovery wouldn't boot and there was no ROM on the phone.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Newbie question

I'm currently using Purity Rom and I want to erase internal storage.If I do a factory reset/full wipe from recovery mode, nothing happens.All my appz and files are still there.How do I do that?

Update your recovery and wipe again. Also there is a option in your settings if you just want to wipe your data

A custom recovery purposely does not wipe the sd card. If you want to wipe that, in twrp, go to wipe, advanced, and wipe the internal sdcard. Cwm has something along those lines too.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app