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To root or not to root

Pros: Overclocking, custom roms, froyo (although I believe you can get this w/o root)
Cons: might break your phone
Pro-cons: if you break your phone, verizon gives you a new one.
 
Here's a list of some of the pros and cons in my opinion

Pros:
Overclock, overclock, overclock
Custom ROMs
Cosmetic customizations
Root Access

Cons:
Chance of bricking your phone (BUT, let me say, that this is pretty difficult to do. As long as you read up thoroughly and follow instructions to the dot on the i's, you'll be fine)
Voiding the warranty (But you can always flash to stock if something goes wrong with the phone [other than it completely bricking])
 
Root if you're confident and understand the process! Do some reasearch.

I was wondering the same thing, so I rooted. Played around with diffeerent roms and 2.2. Really enjoyed being overclocked, its a lot snappier.

But eventually unrooted. I enjoy having stock.

There's a buncha different reasons to root, read around the board for ideas like wirless teathering, overclocking, diff themes...etc, etc, etc.

Have fun young padawan, good luck on your adventures.
 
Pros:

Froyo
Overclocking
Custom roms
Custom themes
Wireless tether
Apps that require root
Personalize themes with MetaMorph
Remove stock apps such as Amazon MP3 (has anyone ever used this?)

Did I mention Froyo?

Cons:

No Froyo
No overclocking
No custom roms
No custom themes
No wireless tether
No apps that require root
No personalized themes with MetaMorph
No removal of stock apps such as Amazon MP3

You won't have Froyo.
 
Pros and Cons are pretty much listed now. I won't relist them. But look at all the cons. No one yet has bricked a Droid. Not saying it can't happen but I doubt it would happen because you root it. And if you do screw it up we can always restore the factory settings. I serioulosy would not worry about ruining the phone. Just realize that all you're doing is installing a rom that has the colors changed. Maybe a kernel that allows overclocking. OC will reduce the life of the CPU (Hot CPUs wear out faster than cool ones) but the amount of life you reduce is probably immateral...you'll probably want a new phone long before you burn up the CPU.

Root it, man. It's fun!

Nate
 
Hey guys, Thanks for the info, I have been reading up on this but, wow there is alot to learn, and me not being the brightest tool in the shed, just want to make sure I do it right the first time. Got my wife a Droid tonight, so now I have to teach her the little I know. Boy that won't take long. SO I will do some more reading and reading and reading. Thanks again
 
Hey guys, Thanks for the info, I have been reading up on this but, wow there is alot to learn, and me not being the brightest tool in the shed, just want to make sure I do it right the first time. Got my wife a Droid tonight, so now I have to teach her the little I know. Boy that won't take long. SO I will do some more reading and reading and reading. Thanks again

I learned a lot from reading this thread: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/ha...ng-only-sprecovery-terminal-emulator-zip.html

Yes, I read the whole thread before attempting to root. That way I was aware of issues others had encountered and could avoid them or correct them when they happened. There are a lot of great minds/guides in this community, most everyone is willing to help as long as you put in a little research/work ahead of time ;)
 
Yeah, I will be reading more thats for sure. Too late to start tonight since I have to get up at 4 am for work, So it will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. All of you guys have been a great help. Now if I could get my wife to stop playing every ringtone on her new Droid I might get some sleep lol. Thanks again
 
Yeah...so just so you know...once you root...you can kiss that sleeping thing good-bye. LOL It's pretty addicting.

Nate
 
My only question is app backup. I know you can backup before you start rooting with astro, but read that when you reinstall them you can't update via market. This still true? Its it worth it to back them up then?

If you go into market after you wipe and clean, and hit the download buttton, will it show all of your aps as installed? So then you atleast have all of your aps listed so you can reinstall 1 by one instead of having to search for them?
 
My only question is app backup. I know you can backup before you start rooting with astro, but read that when you reinstall them you can't update via market. This still true? Its it worth it to back them up then?

If you go into market after you wipe and clean, and hit the download buttton, will it show all of your aps as installed? So then you atleast have all of your aps listed so you can reinstall 1 by one instead of having to search for them?

When you reboot after installing the custom rom you will be prompted to re login to your google account. Once you relogin the market will download all the apps you previously downloaded and install them. It takes a while depending on the number of apps you have.

Don't try to back them up. You're cache won't match. It takes less time and energy to just re-download the apps.

Doing a backup is still a good idea though...just in case one or two apps fail to download. I can't imagine you would not be able to search and find them, but in the off chance that an app is pulled from the market that you have now...I guess that's where the backup of apps comes in handy.

Keep in mind that the Droid uses the cloud computing phylosophy. Your device is like a terminal and all the data is stored on a server and synced to the device. It's pretty hard to lose stuff that way. Don't sweat it too much.

Once you get the phone set up the way you want, back that up so you can restore the settings. Don't worry about the apps. Don't worry about your contacts or emails.

Nate
 
So what are the Pro's and con's of rooting your Droid?


Pros: You can sound really smart when you tell your friends you rooted your phone.

Cons: You sound really stupid when you try to explain how rooting works and have no clue.

I say go for it... Most people will not ask advanced questions... o.O

P.S. always go with the alternative answer... "I overclocked my phone to 1.2Ghz and I'm thinking about putting in another 512MB of ram". People appreciate a lot of numbers.
 
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