New to rooting, please help!!

[bschinkel]

I just picked up my Samsung Epic 4g last week and I love it. I've never had an android phone before (iPhone guy before this) but it's great! I did a little research and I think I would like to root my Epic 4g Touch (I always had a jailbroke iPhone). I like the idea of having complete access to my phone. I have a few questions though before I start. So here we go!
1. I have an SD card, before I root do I need to backup or will it not effect my setttings, pictures, contacts, etc?
2. I heard flashing a ROM can really improve your phones performance. I've also heard that it can boost your 3g speed/help it's performance. Is this true?
3. If I decide to flash a ROM what's the best ROM to use? Is Cynagoenmod available for the Epic 4g Touch?
4. When I decide to flash a ROM will I need to backup on my SD card at that point? What's the best way to do that?

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks guys!

 

[cgalleria93]

If you are not experiencing LOS at this point, my advice is to not mess with other roms and kernels. My suggestion is to just root using another kernel, and then go back to stock kernel.

 

[bschinkel]

What kernel should I root with?

 

[dafluke24]

I got my phone this past Friday and rooted it and installed custom ROM on it the very next day. Have not had any LOS issues at all and my battery life is going on 22 hours on a full charge.

I suggest you watching the videos from qbking77 to help you with rooting and installing ROMs. They are straight forward and very easy to do. I rooted my phone in seconds. it took longer to download the files and watch the video but it really simple.

[ACS] [How to] Root, Clockworkmod, Flash Roms, Unroot, Tips (20 videos) 11/4/11 - xda-developers

I have Calkulin's Rom v1.0 loaded and it's stable and super fast. I think his ROM uses the LosT Exp kernel. So far no LOS for me. Everything works great and I couldn't be happier with this phone.

Good luck with whatever direction you choose

 

[cgalleria93]

I have not had LOS with other roms. I've been missing calls. I know this b/c I use google voice, and i get text messages telling me of all the missed calls which never made it to my phone. (and family members telling me i should have my phone on me at all times)

 

[bschinkel]

Thanks guys! Just another question. When I'm flashing a new ROM onto my device will it boot up as if it was a new setup? Or will everything I have save on it? Is there a way to backup my device so that when I flash a new ROM I don't have to setup everything again?

 

[cgalleria93]

use titanium backup. with all the rom development going on, it will save you a lot of time

 

[dafluke24]

yea, flashing different roms will require wiping everything, so there are no residual pieces of the old rom that could cause issues. Doing so, you will basically lose everything and start fresh. Whatever apps were in the new rom is what you will have. Titanium back up is a life saver to restoring apps, but remember to restore only the apps you want restored. Don't restore everything in 1 shot. Some of the apps and data may break whatever goodies the new rom has.

 

[JayWill]

yea, flashing different roms will require wiping everything, so there are no residual pieces of the old rom that could cause issues. Doing so, you will basically lose everything and start fresh. Whatever apps were in the new rom is what you will have. Titanium back up is a life saver to restoring apps, but remember to restore only the apps you want restored. Don't restore everything in 1 shot. Some of the apps and data may break whatever goodies the new rom has.

This is good advice. Titanium Backup is a great tool, but it can sometimes cause problems when you restore App DATA from an old ROM onto a new one. An alternative is a free app on the market called Appbak. This app creates a text file of all of your apps when you make a backup, and you can use the app and that file to re-install all of your backed up apps right from the market.

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.moparisthebest.appbak&hl=en

Nice for a clean app install on a ROM that may have tweaks that doesn't play nice with old app data.

 

[bschinkel]

Once everything is wiped and you have a fresh ROM how do you go about restoring from a backup? Either Titanium or Appbak?

 

[JayWill]

Once everything is wiped and you have a fresh ROM how do you go about restoring from a backup? Either Titanium or Appbak?

Titanium backup makes a folder on your Internal SD card. When you wipe, only your system partition is wiped, not your SD card folders (internal or external). The same applies to the text file of appbak. So after you flash your ROM and boot up, you would install either TB or Appbak from the market, then run your restore.

 

[bschinkel]

Titanium backup makes a folder on your Internal SD card. When you wipe, only your system partition is wiped, not your SD card folders (internal or external). The same applies to the text file of appbak. So after you flash your ROM and boot up, you would install either TB or Appbak from the market, then run your restore.

So just so I'm clear on the order:
1. Root phone
2. Install Titanium or Appbak from the market.
3. Run a backup using those programs (can I save to the external SD card if I want? Will the Titanium free let me backup?)
4. Flash new ROM
5. After new ROM boots back up install Titanium or Appbak from marketplace and run restore.

Do either of these apps backup photos/videos/texts/e-mails settings etc?
Thanks for all your help!

 

[JayWill]

So just so I'm clear on the order:
Do either of these apps backup photos/videos/texts/e-mails settings etc?
Thanks for all your help!

No they do not, just apps, app data and system data. However regarding system data, it's usually a bad idea to restore system data backups to a new ROM. It's bound to cause problems. App data can sometimes cause problems with certain ROMs as well, which is where Appbak comes in to play since it basically makes doing fresh app downloads and installs easier. Problems from restoring App data backups are more rare than system data though. I think it's best to use both. Use TB for certain apps that you REALLY want to save the data for, and use Appbak to do a fresh install on everything else.

Regarding pictures and videos, the wipes and formats required on most new ROM installs does not wipe the SD card folders where your pictures and videos go. However, you will lose system information like texts. Emails aren't a problem if you use Gmail, or POP and have it set to leave emails on the server (or IMAP of course). For texts, I use a 3rd party SMS app called Go SMS Pro. This app has an option to backup and restore your text threads. So if you really want to save your old texts you can.

Good luck!