Is there any way to root the phone without losing all the stuff I have on it? I didn't think it required formatting the SD card and losing all my apps.
Really, I'm only doing this to move some stuff from the internal memory to the SD card. I'm constantly running out of disk space, so I just wanted to get rid of some of the bloatware that comes with the phone and move some other apps to SD that don't allow it by default.
Back the contents of the sdcard up on your PC (either using a card reader or by connecting the phone with USB).
I would do this regardless before starting to mess with the phone.
Of course if you have a spare sdcard, you can use that while you root. I'd swap the cards with the phone turned off, then turn it on, unmount, format, reboot, now try to root.
That said, I've only done this twice. I don't know for a fact that gb needs a blank card. Only that my wife's phone wouldn't root until we used a blank card.
Sent from my LG Optimus V CM7/IHO