How to Root HTC Hero and Install Amon Ra Recovery Image

always wanted to root my HTC Hero and install custom MoDaCo ROM on it as I had heard a lot about that ROM because it’s very fast, highly optimized and offers much more than the stock ROM on HTC Hero.

I followed various tutorials and articles on the Internet about rooting HTC Hero which is on stock firmware 2.73.x.x and decided to write my own step-by-step tutorial.

How to Root HTC Hero and Install RA Recovery Image

Please follow the steps very carefully and remember, I’m NOT responsible for any damage you do to your phone.

Things You Should Know:

• I’m using an unlocked HTC Hero running on stock firmware 2.73.x.x and has never been rooted before, nor installed any other modifications on it.
• You MUST have Android 1.5 Cupcake installed on your Hero or simply close this page and don’t proceed – Google is your friend then!
• This procedure also works with Sprint Hero, though I haven’t confirmed it myself.
• Make sure you have already created a backup of your microSD card on your computer.

The Tutorial

1.On your phone, go to Settings > Applications > check Unknown sources.

2. Go back (into Settings menu) >SD card & phone storage > press Unmount SD card.

3. Once your card is unmounted, now press Format SD card.

4. Now mount your phone on to the computer by plugging the phone into the compuer via USB, pull down the notification bar and click USB Conencted. Then click Mount.

5.Then, download the two files given below. That’s the Recovery Flasher app and the latest Amon Ra Recovery Image.

• Download FlashRec.apk
• Download recovery-RA-hero-v1.3.2.img

6. Now copy both these files to the root of your SD card. Means, don’t put them in any folder. Then unplug your phone from the computer.

7. Now use a file manager on your phone like ASTRO File Manager (get one from the Android Market) to go to your SD card.

8. Now open the file FlashRec.apk and install the application.

9. From the applications list, open Recovery Flasher, click on Backup Recovery Image and wait for it to finish.

10. Once done, click on the empty box above Download Recovery Image button and type the following WITHOUT mistakes:
/sdcard/recovery-RA-hero-v1.3.2.img

11. Then click on the Flash Custom RecoveryImage button and wait for it to finish.

12. Turn off the phone and turn it on into Recovery Mode by holding down Home and Power buttons to turn it on. Keep holding them until you see some text written in green.

13. That’s it! If you see the screen (like shown below), it means you did everything fine!

Now if you want to install/load a new ROM in your Hero, follow this tutorial: How to Install a Custom ROM on HTC Hero

The image you see above is of RA-herov1.2.3. You should have a slightly different interface options with the new RA-herov1.3.2

You can also watch the video by Unlockr attached below. But remember, when the red box appears telling not to type what the video says, then you should follow STEP 10.

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