Root Anyone point me in the right direction?

[drumshark]

Im new to the rooting world, and plan on giving it a go tomorrow, but have a few questions I cant find answers too.

1: While rooting, does phone (EVO 4g) wipe info stored on sd card? Or should I back up personal photos and such?

2: I know gmail backs up contacts, but have no idea how to transfer contacts from gmail back to my phone

3: When using unrevoked, once the phone is rooted, does it function, or do you have to flash a ROM onto it before it's functional?

4: What is the clockwork mod? Some sites act like you have to load it to your phone after rooting, some sites act like it becomes loaded to your phone by rooting. And what is it? A ROM? A Kernal? ?

5: Also, I really love the feeling of HTC's Sence UI over stock android. I'll play with other ROM's eventually, but in order to keep Sense, what ROM(s) should I use (look in to) because my understanding tells me that after rooting, Sense will be gone

Ive done my reading around, and just cant find specifics to these. I'd love to just dive right into this and learn from mistakes, but since my phone holds my life on it, and cost a lot of money to replace, I'd like to not wreak it by doing this


EDIT: Found answer to #2

 

[cquinn]

You still got some research to do pardner. All the info you're looking for is here on the forum or over at xda. You're right not to root before you know the answers to these questions and about a . . . more. Make a list - write them down - keep reading then check back. You're not ready to root just yet but you will be.

 

[wake69]

West

 

[ocnbrze]

ok to answer your question:
1) no rooting does not erase the sd card but is recommended to wipe it clean and reformat it
2) sync with gmail account
3)unrevoked comes with a stock rom.
4)there are two main types of recovery clockwork mod and amon ra. when you root unrevoked comes with clockwork mod. basically a recovery is something that you will need when you make a backup (nandroid) of everything on your phone so if something goes wrong, you can have a fail safe.

all this and any other questions that you might have can be found here:
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/194918-rooting-dummies-extras.html

but feel free to ask questions. this forum is an awesome place for help.

 

[drumshark]

You still got some research to do pardner. All the info you're looking for is here on the forum or over at xda. You're right not to root before you know the answers to these questions and about a . . . more. Make a list - write them down - keep reading then check back. You're not ready to root just yet but you will be.

This is why i hate forums sometimes... Impossible to not sound like a noob and ask a question

Ive got pretty much all of it down. And within the time it took for me to get some replies, found all the answers and more from different sites

Ive been playing around with a plethera of hacks on my iPod touch for the last year or so now, but android still stumps me sometimes. I'd never go back to iOS until it lets the user of the phone actually control the device they paid for, but my brain is still stuck in iOS mode i guess

 

[ocnbrze]

yeah i agree with your statement. but i hope that any questions you will have to ask them here. there is plenty of people here on this forum that can help. did you check out that guide above. i followed everything and now im hapily rooted and now an addicted unfortunately.

 

[JB in AZ]

This is why i hate forums sometimes... Impossible to not sound like a noob and ask a question

Ive got pretty much all of it down. And within the time it took for me to get some replies, found all the answers and more from different sites

Ive been playing around with a plethera of hacks on my iPod touch for the last year or so now, but android still stumps me sometimes. I'd never go back to iOS until it lets the user of the phone actually control the device they paid for, but my brain is still stuck in iOS mode i guess

Some relpies can get a little, ah.."short" but there are many, many very helpful folks here.

Glad you are getting some answers. Not all of the "gurus" are on all the time. (Although it does seem like some are!) So sometimes it is just timing....Please feel free to stay involved and ask away. Soon, you will be helping others.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Ok to clear up any confusion.

1. No....but as suggested above its good to back everything up to your pc format the card via the phone menu and start from scratch. Menu.settings.storage.unmount.format

2. Menu.accounts and sync. Sync gmail BEFORE and then afterwards to get it all back

3. No ....unrevoked simply unlocks nand and gives super user. If...and I do mean IF all goes well your stock rom remains intack. Unrevoked does not come with a rom which carries us to

4. Unrevoked SHOULD install clockwork as a custom recovery. Some users have run into problems at the end of the automated process. If you get an error message let us know and we will walk you through correcting it. Clockwork is your tool for a number of things. Read through that section in the rfd thread.


Most of this is discussed in detail in the root for dummies thread....the ONLY frequently updated a-z how to I have seen.
If you have more questiions let any of us know