a few questions before I take the rooting plunge...

[scosch]

All of the info here is fantastic and there are so many helpful people on this forum. Thanks to all of you who post such great information (Cory Streater, your walkthroughs seem AMAZING.)

I'm starting to build up the courage to root my Bolt. I've spent quite a bit of time reading about rooting and ROMS and all that but I still have a few basic questions before I go for it. I know it's preferred if I scour the posts for the answers to my questions, but having a response that addresses my specific questions would be nice.

1. Just HOW easy is it to brick my Bolt during the rooting process, assuming I'm extremely careful with the steps? I think I would prefer Cory's manual procedure over the auto procedure because then if something goes wrong I'll know exactly what step caused the problem. My biggest concern is bricking it to the point of no return. I got the thing 2 weeks ago- I'm past my 14 day return and have the black tie protection from Best Buy, but I don't want to risk not getting a replacement should I brick it completely. This really is my main concern.

2. My main reason for rooting is to hopefully get much improved battery life and maybe a little gingerbread action. I've seen a few things about certain ROMs dramatically improving battery life. Is this true? If it is, what ROMs are they? If I can't get significant battery improvement I don't know that I want to risk the brick by rooting.

3. I see that there are methods for unrooting. I've also seen that unrooting puts everything back to stock. Does that literally mean that after following ONLY the unrooting procedure I'm left with a phone that is in the exact state it was when I took it out of the box?

4. If I do get some kind of error that freaks me out while rooting, can I stop in the middle of it and revert back to the way it was before I started rooting, or at least return it back to original stock? This would allow me to still use my phone while I run for help on this forum- the thought of being without a working phone while I wait who knows how long for a possible solution is a bit scary.

5. I just downloaded and installed the OTA MR2 update. Can I even use the same rooting procedure Cory wrote, or is that procedure only good for MR1 users?

Does anybody have any other advice for me? Am I just being overly paranoid? Thanks to any and all helpful replies.

 

[baldmike]

Well, I'm certainly no pro at this stuff, but I have rooted and unrooted my Thunderbolt, and am about to root again. I rooted my Thunderbolt when I first got it using the autoroot method and it was very easy. I used this link: YouTube - ‪How to Root: HTC Thunderbolt One Click App‬‏ and walked through it perfectly. I was a little concerned about bricking it, but after watching the video, I had more confidence. I eventually flashed BAMF GingerRemix 2.1 and the MR2.5 radio, but for some reason about 2 weeks later, lost my 4G connection. I do not believe it had anything to do with rooting or the ROM. Anyway, Verizon was sending me another Thunderbolt, so I used the ADB unroot and it worked flawlessly, factory stock with S-On, so I could send it back to Verizon. The hardest part of the ADB unroot was setting up ADB on my computer (not hard, just a little time consuming since you also have to install Java Platform (JDK)). As far as your #5 question, I haven't rooted or flashed anthing on this replacement phone yet, as I'm still brutalizing it to make sure I don't lose 4G again, but I'm pretty sure you do the original autoroot with MR1, then flash any ROM you want, including the Official 1.70.605.0 MR2 OTA Deodexed Rooted Busybox if you want to keep it fairly stock.