Does installing a ROM actually wipe current?

[Guest JamesMcD]

Hi.

First off apologies if this has already been adressed but from browsing the Modaco forums for the last week and bringing myself upto speed, im still a little in the dark.

I have my new SF and installed clockwork and Pauls r5 no problems all good.

If I copy another ROM to my SD card and decide to install it to phone using clockwork, will it erase everything completely on phone? E.g like (format Star.star) -flippin iPad no star key!- therefore when I bootup the phone is an exact replia of the distributed rom? (similar to restoring a VM image on a PC)

I only ask as a friend of mine had pauls rom and the upgraded to another rom and it kept his home screen and contacts? Maybe its designed to do that, its this im unsure about, how it actually works.

I think for the purposes of testing, myself personally, I would rather it work where it completely erased each time so I knew where I stood (as long as i took a backup before hand of course!). Maybe it does wipe completely?

I just dont want to try and then end up with a bit of everything installed.

I read on here about emptying the Cache & Data before installing a ROM, is that similar? how is that acomplished if so?

Thanks & keep up the cracking work guys!

James.

[Guest Richard_Arkless]

no any data will still be there....however if there is a huge amount of changes between the roms then there could be instability issues, worst case scenario is that the vital system apps e.g the home screen wont load and you will need to wipe it in clockwork, any other type of app can be wiped in the manage applications section in settings

It will only wipe itself only when you select factory reset

its best to backup your current rom and all its data so if the new rom breaks the phone in any way then you can safely restore back to the previous one and keep all your stuff that was backed up

[Guest JamesMcD]

Ok so would that mean to acomplish what i want (total wipe) the best wsy would be todo a factory reset in clockwork before rom install?

Thanks.

James.

[Guest Andy Maclean]

Well it depends what's in the update-script of the rom you are trying to install. This can be found in \META-INF\com\google\android\ of the zip and opened with any text editor.

For example the modaco rom only formats the system partition which means you won't lose any settings or apps.

format SYSTEM:

The unofficial froyo rom however formats the system, data and cache partitions so you will lose everything.

format DATA:

format CACHE:

format SYSTEM:

Cheers,

Andy