ICS update - Can I still factory reset back to 2.3.3?

[Guest jblz]

Hi,

I've been borrowing a friends Sensation as I'm considering buying it. By accident I factory reset it in the boot loader (power button = select? That's some bullshit!), now I'm wondering, if I update to ICS (the new OTA update) when I factory reset from the bootloader will it revert back to 2.3.3?

[Guest nonmindo]

Hi,

I've been borrowing a friends Sensation as I'm considering buying it. By accident I factory reset it in the boot loader (power button = select? That's some bullshit!), now I'm wondering, if I update to ICS (the new OTA update) when I factory reset from the bootloader will it revert back to 2.3.3?

Power has been select since the dawn of time, on nearly ALL android devices, though some of them use the camera shutter button if present

As far as reverting back to 2.3.3 with factory reset, no

Factory reset only resets the /data directory to fresh, it does not touch /system

[Guest jblz]

Power has been select since the dawn of time, on nearly ALL android devices, though some of them use the camera shutter button if present

As far as reverting back to 2.3.3 with factory reset, no

Factory reset only resets the /data directory to fresh, it does not touch /system

Yeah, I was a fool haha.

Are you referring to the factory reset from the bootloader? Because it seemed to get rid of everything on the phone itself but not the SD Card.

So to confirm, updating to 4.0 and then doing a reset from the bootloader will keep 4.0?

Edited March 12, 2012 by jblz

[Guest steini81]

Yes you will stay at 4.0 only your personal data will be deleted. Stuff on the SD card will be untouched.

[Guest nonmindo]

Yeah, I was a fool haha.

Are you referring to the factory reset from the bootloader? Because it seemed to get rid of everything on the phone itself but not the SD Card.

So to confirm, updating to 4.0 and then doing a reset from the bootloader will keep 4.0?

correct factory reset in bootloader is really no different than factory reset from within Android OS

doing a factory reset will just wipe everything but the SD card and /system (where the OS lives, unless i'm totally mistaken)

in order to install ICS you will need to update the firmware of the actual chips in the phone, not a difficult process to do, just search around for it

in order to get BACK to a GB rom you would need to then downgrade the firmware of the chips (not sure if this can be done, i accidentally updated my FW for ICS before it was stable and couldnt figure out how to get back to GB....well i got back to GB but had no service)

Trip has some pretty decent ICS rom's available as well as Virtuos (though Trip doesnt exactly get along with them) shouldn't be a big deal if you upgrade FW and install an ICS, but i'd wait till you decide weather or not to buy the phone from your friend

My best suggestion though would be to search around on here, Rootzwiki or XDA for info on the different FW versions and how to install them (usually just in a .img file that can be flashed via bootloader)

if your totally new to the android scene though I would stick with gingerbread for now until your more familiar with all the different terms and tools used for various things, its easier to work with gingerbread right now because there are a bunch of stable versions of it ICS is still fairly new to the device so results can vary greatly from rom to rom

[Guest jblz]

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm not new to Android, I've been a ZTE Blade user for a year and a half which has been flashed oh so many times, I've just never undertaken an 'official OTA' update so I wasn't sure if it 'flashed' the same way.

Many thanks for all the detailed replies. Think I'm just gonna buy it then update, hoping to get a good deal on it.