Newbie rooting questions

[highbulp]

Hi everyone, I've looking around the forums but can't seem to find consistent answers to a few questions.

I got my Nexus S a few months ago, but I'm looking to root it (mostly so I can fix a bug where custom ringtones are reset after a restart). But I have some questions:

1) If I root my Nexus using the instructions for ClockworkMod, is that going to erase all my current data and settings? Or do I want to use the Superboot method linked from the forums?

2) Is there a way to backup all my data and settings without having root before I go poking around in the system? Or am I stuck deleting all my stuff if I want to root so that I can then backup everything (which will already be deleted)? I've been using my phone regularly for a while now, so I've got plenty of customizations/apps/tweaks/etc that I've already made and don't want to have to do over.

3) Is there a way to back up my current data and settings, and then reload them into a custom ROM? If not, then do all the people who are ROM-happy just keep redoing their customizations and/or using the defaults for the ROM?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[TDR]

Hello!

Have you updated to Android 2.3.3? I think that fixed the custom ringtones issue.

If you have updated to 2.3.3 and you are looking to root, AFAIK you will have to unlock your bootloader first (which does wipe everything, including USB storage). If you haven't yet updated, you can follow the instructions in this xda post to flash ClockworkMod without unlocking. Then you can backup everything using nandroid and once you install the root files you can use a tool like Titanium Backup to save apps and settings.

It isn't recommended to restore system settings between ROMs, as that might cause weird problems. That said, you should be able to restore things like your WiFi settings using Titanium Backup, as well as any custom launcher settings and so on without problems.