How to install Custom ROM on Android?
Just few days back I have written article about what custom ROM is all about. Now it is time to check out that how we can install that Custom ROM on our android device. As I have mentioned in my previous article that custom ROM is the android system itself with improvement and upgraded features from its developer. And of course it is not one of the official android systems which come with mobile brand itself. And other important thing that I have already mentioned in my previous article is that you must have rooted android device for installing custom ROM on your android device. How to do it? Just visit above link you will get all the information.
Now let me tell you what are the requirements for having the custom ROM for our android device. There are two important things which you will require before installing such custom ROM on your mobile.
1. Custom Recovery Mode
2. Custom Android ROM for your Device
Now let’s see detail information related to both the things.
Custom Recover mode
What is Custom Recovery mode?
As far as I know most of the android devices come with their own recovery mode from where we can have backup of our android phone. We can restore those data from the same place too. But this recovery mode is not strong enough to install those custom android ROM versions in android device. For that we have to go for third party recovery mode which can be called custom Recovery mode. With those recovery modes of course we can do backup and restore things. But we also have extra features for installing upgrades and custom ROMs from SD card of our android phone. It also contains many other useful features. So in short it is the recovery mode which can do lot more things in compare to original recovery mode. So this thing is most important thing before going for any custom ROM.
What can we do with these custom recovery modes?
There are many useful things you can do with it.
Install upgrades and many more: You can install upgrades and custom ROMs using this custom recovery mode. You can also install additional tweaks on your android device using which you can change lots of things on your android phone.
Take complete backup of your phone and restore: You can take complete backup your device. Complete means, you will have backup of all the application with its data. I mean you will get your apps back after restoring where you left them. You can restore that backup later using the same recovery mode. So this thing is most important related to this thing.
Mount and Un-mount system: For certain download you must have to un-mount and mount your system and SD card first and that thing you can do it from this recovery mode.
Factory Format: Sometime you need to factory format your android device or completely erase whole operating system for particular reason. You can do these things easily with one click from such recovery mode. You can install back another OS from the same place too.
There are few other things too which you can do it using the same, but I guess these things are most frequent works you may need in custom recovery mode.
What are different Custom Recovery modes?
So far I only know about two custom recovery modes and which I personally used. First one is Clockworkmod custom recovery and second one is TWRP custom recovery mode. Both of them are having same work with little different layouts. But both are good and you can go for any one with which you are comfortable. Personally I would advice for Clockworkmod recovery as it is used by many developers and it is quite user friendly but choice is yours.
Custom ROM for your android device
This is the second thing which you need before going for the Custom ROM. Well, in simple word this thing is like setup of your new android operating system which you will install using the custom recovery mode which I mentioned above.
Now you have to be careful on choosing the custom ROM for your device. You have to found the custom ROM which is specially made for your device only. You can’t take any custom ROM which is made for some other device and install on your device. Let me tell you never try this thing. If you are not sure about custom ROM then better you not install it as if it is not intended especially for your device then there is highly risk that your phone can get brick. Means your phone can get dead with non repairable condition. So better you watch out before installing any new Custom ROM. If you found one which is specially made for your device then and then only go for it.
How to install it via Custom mode recovery?
So, if you have found proper custom ROM for your device and you have already installed custom recovery mode on your phone then now it is time for installing that custom ROM on your device.
First copy-paste that custom ROM (whole zip file) into SD card of your phone.
Now switch off your phone and go into custom recovery mode. In most of the phone you can go into custom recovery mode by pressing power button and volume down button simultaneously. But procedure for your phone may be different so better search about it first on internet.
After reaching to recovery mode first thing you have to do is back up your original android device. This is for safety purpose. I mean if something goes wrong during installing this custom ROM then you can restore back this backup file and get your android device live again. So never forget to take back-up first.
After taking back-up you need to format your phone completely. I mean you have to wipe your data and factory reset of your phone. You have to remove your previous operating system so it doesn’t get conflicts with the new system.
After formatting the system, now it’s time to install the custom ROM. Choose ‘install from sd card option’ and choose the ROM which you have copy pasted in your SD card previously. It will take few minutes to install the ROM. After it get installed completely reboot your phone.
After rebooting your phone you have to wait for few minutes. Because after installing new system on your phone it may take longer time to start up again. So don’t lose patience and wait till your phone gets start.
That’s it. When your phone will start, you will have complete new operating system/custom ROM on your android device. Now as per new ROM you will found the changes in compare of before. Let me tell you one more thing, the above procedure for installing custom ROM can be different for different phone. But these are the basic steps and you have to follow them for every device with few improvements and changes.
So this is it. You have got all the information about how to install the Custom ROM on your android device. Be careful on the things I have mentioned and you will face no problem. Make sure you understand the risk and have all the information before going for it.
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