Suddenly the Word "Bricked" is Being Seen In This Forum

[hookbill]

The problem is that most people's phones aren't actually bricked. If you decide to root, you should know how important it is to use SPRecovery and have a Nandroid backup. If you go through the proper steps, it should be pretty damn hard to actually brick the phone.

Several post similar to this one, I think we understand that in the truest sense of the word the phones aren't actually bricked. No more then when people would brick there Blackberry Storms. Heck I did that to mine a few times but that was the term we used when something went wrong and we got stuck and that's what I'm basing this particular thread about.

My point again is that to avoid having issues that you may or may not recover from before you decide to root just make sure you understand the directions first. If you don't then it's probably best to avoid it. Up until rooting started it was never even seen in the forum before. So irregardless of whether or not the phone is actually bricked or not, people are indeed having issues and should be prepared as you said in your post by knowing exactly what to do.

 

[cereal killer]

My personal opinion is if one does not understand what the commands mean and do they should not be rooting.

Being able to follow steps is one thing. Understanding EXACTLY what you are doing is another.

I believe the latter is a prerequisite to rooting.

This is just my personal opinion though.

 

[clucernoni]

I'm sorry but if you can brick your phone by rooting it, you have to really try to screw up or simply be inept with electronics and computers. There are guides out there with pictures and step by step procedures that when i was doing it, I couldn't think of a way to actually screw it up...really you don't know enough to screw up if you are that bad with computers.

I can understand bricking it by messing with directory files and stuff like that, but by rooting??? Nearly impossible.

 

[Boris Badenov]

Follow directions-easy enough

Directions????


I'm a man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:icon_ devil:

 

[obededom]

how do you recover from bootloader access only?

 

[jsh1120]

+1 on Hookbill's comments.

A little history for the young. The term "root" dates back at least to early days of Unix where "root" was the superuser account for the Unix multiuser, multitasking operating system. Back in the day when I first started working with Unix the "root" password was jealously guarded and seldom used even by a system administrator because it eliminated virtually all of the safeguards meant to protect a user from making a catastrophic mistake and destroying the operating system.

I have to admit that I cringe whenever I read posts from folks who think that a little experience with a phone is sufficient to enable them to hack the multitasking Android O/S safely (an O/S whose "roots" trace back to Unix.)

Of course, in this case it's your phone and while it's a multitasking O/S, at least it isn't multiuser. So if you destroy critical data or make your phone unusable, you won't be hurting anyone but yourself. And if you're willing to invest the time and money to correct your errors, I suppose it's no one else's business.

But speaking as someone who has considerable experience administering systems for many, many years, I would never consider simply following a "how to" guide from an source I had no reason to trust and take over the administrative privileges of an operating system I knew very little about.

 

[smokiedabong]

Will Asurion cover any bricked phone or damaged due to overclocking ?

 

[wuyanks]

Will Asurion cover any bricked phone or damaged due to overclocking ?

if you're worried about being denied, just tell them you lost the phone, and voila, you will get a new one (with a deductable)

 

[acturbo]

Will Asurion cover any bricked phone or damaged due to overclocking ?

if you're worried about being denied, just tell them you lost the phone, and voila, you will get a new one (with a deductable)

Also known as insurance fraud......................:icon_eek::icon_eek::icon_eek::icon_eek::icon_eek:

 

[hookbill]

Since we know everyone is in within their one year warranty you could probably take it back to Verizon and say, "I don't know what happened." People did that frequently with Storms.

But at that point you may lose data that's important to you.

Again I'm not suggesting not to root the phone. Just make sure if you go to root it you read the directions and understand what you're reading. If you can do that then root if you so desire.

To the person that said the following:
I'm sorry but if you can brick your phone by rooting it, you have to really try to screw up or simply be inept with electronics and computers. There are guides out there with pictures and step by step procedures that when i was doing it, I couldn't think of a way to actually screw it up...really you don't know enough to screw up if you are that bad with computers.

Well, there are plenty of people like that. And also what may seem simple and easy to you, may not be for the next person. I consider myself fairly computer literate but in just reading the directions alone I came across stuff I didn't clearly understand. Now as I said earlier probably when I got to these points I would be fine but I'm not in a big hurry for 2.1. I think my Droid runs fine so when 2.1 gets here, it gets here.

I will say without a doubt that rooting a phone is much more complicated then installing a leaked OS on a Blackberry. And I would tell people who did updates on Blackberry the same exact thing: Don't know what you're doing, then don't do it.

 

[Se7enLC]

I can't say this enough, and I wish EVERY thread that advertises instructions on installing a ROM, hacking a framework, and even those boot animation updates would say this as well -

*** Install SPRecovery First! ***

First, First, First!

Without it, recovery options are very limited, but once you have it, it's like having a save point in a video game. An undo button. No matter what you foul up, so long as it's not physically damaged or damaged the recovery image itself, you can fix it - quickly and easily.

Also - it can only take a single typo to render it un-bootable. Even if you know exactly what you are doing, you just need to type a filename wrong or skip a command and you can't boot back up to fix it. No matter how experienced you are, you will have moments where you hit enter before realizing what you typed incorrectly. Having a backup/recovery option is VITAL to hacking around with stuff like this.

 

[hookbill]

I can't say this enough, and I wish EVERY thread that advertises instructions on installing a ROM, hacking a framework, and even those boot animation updates would say this as well -

*** Install SPRecovery First! ***

First, First, First!

Without it, recovery options are very limited, but once you have it, it's like having a save point in a video game. An undo button. No matter what you foul up, so long as it's not physically damaged or damaged the recovery image itself, you can fix it - quickly and easily.

Also - it can only take a single typo to render it un-bootable. Even if you know exactly what you are doing, you just need to type a filename wrong or skip a command and you can't boot back up to fix it. No matter how experienced you are, you will have moments where you hit enter before realizing what you typed incorrectly. Having a backup/recovery option is VITAL to hacking around with stuff like this.

Isn't this available on the instructions to do this? Because this isn't a thread on how to root your Droid, it's a thread to make sure you understand the instructions on how to do it.

I see somebody now has it laid out in 10 steps. That's quite a bit different then the 50 I originally saw. I'm still not going to do it, not just because I'm stubborn but I notice it needs winrar and I have a Mac. Anyway, I'm not in a big hurry to get what I feel is a not so big deal update.

 

[Se7enLC]

Isn't this available on the instructions to do this? Because this isn't a thread on how to root your Droid, it's a thread to make sure you understand the instructions on how to do it.

Oh, no, I didn't mean THIS thread should say that - I agree with you 100% - so many people are coming in saying "k how i get tether nao? want ovrclk ez" that just want the simplest step-by-step directions. I was just commenting on the fact that some of these instructions leave out the fact that you should have the recovery console installed and working before doing *anything* else. Combine that with the fact that a lot of people following these directions don't really know what they are doing when they type them in and you get disaster.

I see somebody now has it laid out in 10 steps. That's quite a bit different then the 50 I originally saw. I'm still not going to do it, not just because I'm stubborn but I notice it needs winrar and I have a Mac. Anyway, I'm not in a big hurry to get what I feel is a not so big deal update.

UnRarX - Mac OS X RAR Extraction Utility is the mac equivalent. If you're happy with the phone the way it works out of the box, I agree - don't root it. There's really not that much that rooting gets you, and if you don't want any of those things, it's not worth the hassle and risk.

So far I believe the list is mostly: Backup/Restore capability, Wifi Tethering, Overclocking, Themes, Screen Capture, Ad Blocking, and a few other small hacks. Some of the apps from 2.1 filtered down, but I believe they can all be installed on non-rooted droids, too.

 

[chris1_pl]

Yeah, no rooting or overclocking for me... I learned that lesson the hard way after frying 2 hard drives on my PC trying to overclock. Hard drives are cheap though, buying a new Droid would not be... Just me though...

I agree with you on that..learned my lesson messing with bios(win 98).

 

[lockman]

Hook, I agree with you 100%. I rooted. Easy enough. No worries. But then I started looking at Smoked Glass and BB, and I was taken aback a bit. Directions that I don't completely understand worry me.
At work, if I find myself in that situation I can call tech support and get walked through it in real time. So for the time being, I'm good with my phone as-is.