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[Verizon] Unlocking and Rooting the CDMA Galaxy Nexus on JB 4.2.2

NekoTaks

Newbie
It's been a while since I posted anything here. . .

While I'm a bit late to the rooting bandwagon with the GNex, I am glad to finally be able to root my beloved phone.

I'm currently in the process of backing up all the data that is in my GNex's virtual SD card, and saving it on my computer, because I plan on unlocking the phone and rooting it tonight. I'm using the latest version of Wugfresh's Nexus Root Toolkit (1.6.3, but using the Any Build option since, even though it said there was support for 4.2.2, I'm assuming there's no support for the Verizon version of 4.2.2) to make rooting my phone easier, and so far have had not a single problem with installing the drivers and backing up my apps, messages, and contacts. Right now I'm manually backing up the data on the /sdcard because the "Backup Virtual SD card" option didn't back up my data like I hoped it would. . .

I have a few questions before I proceed to unlock, root, and enjoy the openness of a rooted phone once more.

When I unlock the phone, I've been told that my entire device will be wiped. Does that include wiping data on the virtual SD card? Or will it do it like a factory reset and wipe only the system memory but leave my SD card data intact? This is the very reason I'm backing up everything on my virtual SD card, and since I'm unsure, I'm not taking chances with simply going straight to unlocking and rooting.

When choosing the recovery to install, should I use the TWRP recovery, or the CWM recovery? I've had experience with CWM on my old phone before, but heard TWRP works better than CWM.

Thank you for answering my questions! Any clarification will be much appreciated before I go on to rooting my GNex.
 
Hey there,

You were right to make a backup of your virtual SD. Unlocking the bootloader will indeed wipe everything on the device, including the virtual SD.

In terms of recoveries, if you haven't tried TWRP yet, give it a go. I really like it and it is quite simple to use. Big buttons and lots of options. One of my favorite options is the ability to name my nandroid backup before starting the backup. Remember not to use spaces when naming backups. I know this still applies to CWM, and while I don't know for sure if it applies to TWRP, why chance it?

Let us know if you have any other questions. Good luck and happy flashing! :)
 
I'm thankful that I'm paranoid about backing up everything before even clicking on the “Unlock” option in Wug's NRT. I'll also give TWRP a try.

Thanks for answering! I'll definitely be going on to unlocking and rooting my phone tonight.
 
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