New to android and desire need guidance for noob.

[aaronlawyer]

I just got a htc desire from my carrier "ntelos" who isn't listed. I know I will want to update it to 2.2 froyo and believe that rooting and installing an ruu is the only way to do that.

Now as far as I have made it is that I have made a "gold card"<<but i'm not even sure what that means.

I am warey of doing anything to damage my phone; so i'm taking it slow so I can learn.

I want to make sure I can get my phone back to exactly the way it is now if i don't like the changes and all....with the hopes that if i ever need warranty service i can just reload my backup and send it in.

the question is how do i do that; what will make a complete backup of my phone before I do anything else?

also once i get my backup; what ruu should I install first? I don't know anything about any of them. I understand that is some what a loaded question and it has a lot to do with user preferance. I want one with the maximum functionality while not having junk on it i'm not gonna want. Can someone make a recommendation or at least narrow down a list of possibles?

I hope this is not an unreasonable request; I am so new I don't even know the right questions to ask at this point.

 

[Casual Pete]

Have a read through this to start with.