HTC Desire - Should I root it?

[Rufio]

I've had a HTC Desire for almost a year and have started considering rooting it.

I've read that it can lead to performance boosts etc. But I don't entirely have my mind made up.

Has anyone on here rooted their phone? Would they recommend it? What are the Pros and cons of it?

Do you lose all the data you currently have on the phone?

Thanks in advance.

[tylerdurden94]

I use to hack my iPod all the time but then just got bored doing it, haven't really looked at the rooting side of Android so would like to hear if people have any experience with it.

[Ste05]

I'd also be interested in hearing views on this. The internal memory on my phone is nearly always full nowadays and it's hella annoying when apps can't be sent to my SD card. I hear rooting can help with this, but apart from that I don't see how it improves the phone.

[mocata]

I have mine rooted for a few months now, RCMixHD i am running on it.

Frees up plenty of internal memory for apps, i have the HTCsense.com working now too, so can download maps, and do the live tracking for when i leave phone in pub/work.


http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=628
xda developers is best place for info and up to date Roms, get something like titanium backup and sync all your contacts with it. I gave the couple of quid for the paid version and it puts everything into your dropbox folder. Takes 10 mins max to restore all apps/contact/text/emails after a full wipe and ROM install.

The stickies have all the info you need on rooting, its pretty easy tbh, and a decent performance boost.

[Denny Crane]

I heard that rooting gives you the option of more internal space by partitioning the sd card. I don't want to change anything, I'm happy with sense etc. is it possible to get a rom that will just do that?

[BobSloane]

I've had a HTC Desire for almost a year and have started considering rooting it.

Has anyone on here rooted their phone?

haven't really looked at the rooting side .

I hear rooting can help with this, but apart from that I don't see how it improves the phone.

I have mine rooted for a few months now


The stickies have all the info you need on rooting

I heard that rooting gives you the option of more internal space by partitioning the sd card.

[TM2204]

^^^^^ Thought Bin Laden was dead

[Denny Crane]

Ha trying to navigate those threads on the phone is too awkward! Just want more space, and hoped I could get some easy info. Not really interested in any of the other aspects of rooting.

[shortstack]

Anybody found a simple way to free up space on the internal memory without resetting the phone? I have only 17mb left which is not enough for the latest update to install.

I have very few apps installed and all photo's and videos are on the SD card.

[mocata]

Rooting it lets you use the SD card as part of the RAM of your phone, giving you more space than you could ever use to install apps.

http://unrevoked.com/

Then check out android forums or XDA developers for custom ROM's.

I will have my netbook with me at the IPB game if anyone is nervous about doing it i can show em, it only takes 10 mins.

I have the new Sense interface from the HTC sensation on mine, runs v quick with far better battery Life than standard.

[Sledgejammer]

Apparently following the steps in this thread will help me get my HTC HD upgraded to the next Android quicker, since Three seem to be taking an eternity to release the upgrade when others have had it for weeks.

Can anyone tell me what exactly following the steps in that thread will do to my phone? Will it affect any apps I have installed already, will it alter or remove HTC Sense? I'm not entirely sure what it does so I'm a little bit trepidatious about going ahead with it just for the sake of getting onto 2.3 early.

[tylerdurden94]

Rooting it lets you use the SD card as part of the RAM of your phone, giving you more space than you could ever use to install apps.

http://unrevoked.com/

Then check out android forums or XDA developers for custom ROM's.

I will have my netbook with me at the IPB game if anyone is nervous about doing it i can show em, it only takes 10 mins.

I have the new Sense interface from the HTC sensation on mine, runs v quick with far better battery Life than standard.

Any chance you could expand on this a little? What kinda ROM's can you get?

I haven't really looked into rooting to much but I always use to hack my iPod Touch.

[mocata]

Its similar to jailbreaking an iphone. The new software i have is ported directly from the Desire HD , so has the snazzy new screens. There are various ROMs that have been developed, eg one based on the core google android software with everything stripped out bar the useful functions. This gives longer battery life cos the CPU and internet connection arent working as Hard, there are other versions that have more eye candy and features from other newer phones incorporated, like the "find my phone" function on HTCsense.com


Have a look here and you can see screenshots of what i mean

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=628

Its very easy to backup and restore with an android phone, you can sync everything to a gmail account, then when you upgrade and restore it puts back everything in 5 mins, including all the apps you had installed. I used an app called SMS backup and restore and another called titanium backup just in case something went wrong.

One of the other benefits of rooting is that you can make a complete backup image of your phone, then copy it to your pc, then you can put it back exactly the way it was if you feel the need.

[mocata]

Apparently following the steps in this thread will help me get my HTC HD upgraded to the next Android quicker, since Three seem to be taking an eternity to release the upgrade when others have had it for weeks.

Can anyone tell me what exactly following the steps in that thread will do to my phone? Will it affect any apps I have installed already, will it alter or remove HTC Sense? I'm not entirely sure what it does so I'm a little bit trepidatious about going ahead with it just for the sake of getting onto 2.3 early.

In a nutshell, the android phones come with the "administrator" account disabled. This process re enables it, and by doing that, allows you to make whatever changes you see fit to the operating system. In and of itself, "rooting" the phone just means that you have the ability to fiddle with stuff, it wont actually make any visible software changes at all.

Caveat emptor tho, backup all contacts and SMS before doing it. (Just covering my ass there, its a fairly well tested and documented process at this stage)

[tylerdurden94]

Its similar to jailbreaking an iphone. The new software i have is ported directly from the Desire HD , so has the snazzy new screens. There are various ROMs that have been developed, eg one based on the core google android software with everything stripped out bar the useful functions. This gives longer battery life cos the CPU and internet connection arent working as Hard, there are other versions that have more eye candy and features from other newer phones incorporated, like the "find my phone" function on HTCsense.com


Have a look here and you can see screenshots of what i mean

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=628

Its very easy to backup and restore with an android phone, you can sync everything to a gmail account, then when you upgrade and restore it puts back everything in 5 mins, including all the apps you had installed. I used an app called SMS backup and restore and another called titanium backup just in case something went wrong.

One of the other benefits of rooting is that you can make a complete backup image of your phone, then copy it to your pc, then you can put it back exactly the way it was if you feel the need.

Too much to think about and read my brain isnt up for it today

[Rufio]

Finally managed to root this using unrevoked3, for some reason it worked once i tried it using a xp netbook that i had.
Messed around trying to do the windows 7 thing deadparrot did, but ultimately it wasn't fixing any of the problems I was having with the desire (running a bit slow, constantly low on internal memory etc)
So after a bit of searching around I came across Cyanogenmod 7, it's built for stability and speed and it really does the job great.
You have to install the android market after you flash the ROM but it's not a hard process, my phone is acting better then new and i'm delighted.

Thoroughly recommended to all.