[General Questions and Answers] sidgeekpurchases:
Steps taken to install CWM recovery zip and Modified ROM

NOT COUNTING THE COUNTLESS HOURS SPENT LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS TO THE ISSUES ...

Resources used (HW & SW):

- XDA Developers Forum

- PC running Windows 7 Pro (64 bit)

- Manuxo's XDA Forum posts

- ColonelZap's XDA Forum posts & Blog site

- MayiandJay YouTube Videos

- Greg Tay's (GT35pro) XDA Forum post response & Blog site

- Google Search (a blessing for all earthlings)

- Android USB Driver (downloaded from "unrevoked" site -- http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/windows_hboot_driver_install)

- CWM Recovery zipped file (downloaded from ColonelZap's post)

- Modified ROM package from Manuxo's post

- Rooting files provided by MayiandJay (link on the YouTube video -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZCQ9uOwxbc)

- Smart Phone Flash Tool from Greg Tay's blog or links

- SnapPea (also automatically gets the HTC android driver for the device if a driver doesn't exist)

- Last but not the least my newest Android toy - gPhone I5

Steps followed:

- First and foremost deleted android drivers I had previously installed (search internet for info on how to)

- Connected the device to the PC

- The PC tried to install the driver for MT65xx and finally failed

- As directed on the "unrevoked" site (link above) the USB driver previously downloaded was installed

- The above step gave me the driver (interface) to communicate with the device

- Next to be installed was SnapPea with the phone connected to my PC

- SnapPea automatically installed a small application on my phone

- With device connected I followed directions by MayiandJay (on his YouTube video) to make sure the device was rooted

- That step was pretty straight forward as I performed the steps as I played the video (of course pausing the video several times)

- Now I branched off to extract the Flash Tool in preparation to install the CWM Recovery (without this my previous attempts to update the ROM (zip) file via the original recovery menu was not possible)

- The Flash tool was extracted to a folder (that is convenient) on my PC

- The CWM recovery zip file contents (there are only two files, one is the image and the other a scatter file) were extracted to the same folder as the Flash Tool (this is important according to Greg Tay)

- The flash tool was launched, the scatter file was located, checked the DA DL box, and clicked on download (as noted on screen shot below)

Screen copy could not be pasted ... please see attached document.

- A warning prompt appeared, but I simply accepted Yes (again based on GT35pro's set of instructions)

Screen copy could not be pasted ... please see attached document.

- Nothing seemed to happen, other than the flash tool saying "searching" as noted on the screen shot above (didn't know what it was searching for)

- The flash tool was left running with the phone connected to the PC

- Next the phone was turned off and restarted in recovery mode

- Not exactly sure at what point between turning off and phone booting into recovery mode something magical happened

- The flash tool started the download process -- the bar that showed 0% changed color and a small window opened indicating successful download (unfortunately did not make a screen copy of it)

- I immediately disconnected the phone and used the "reboot" menu item in the recovery screen to reboot the phone.

- The phone rebooted without any issues.

- Now with the phone connected to the PC and USB Storage access enabled, the ROM Package (zip file) was copied to the root folder of the sdcard (there were two partitions one was about 2GB and the other about 14GB - the zip was put on the 2GB partition)

- The phone was completely powered down after copying the modified ROM package to the device

- The device was powered back again (booted), but this time in recovery mode (with "Vol -" and "Power" buttons pressed at the same time)

- Voila! I now had ColonelZap's CWM recovery menu items (a lot more than the original stock recovery)

- Once I had the recovery the rest was very simple, I followed all the steps outlined by Manuxo on this thread. Additionally I also insured that signature verification was disabled by toggling it on & off from the CWM recovery menu (unfortunately I don't have screenshots for this).

- Following the successful installation of the modified ROM, the device was rebooted from the CWM recovery menu.

- It took a bit longer than I had noticed for it to boot, but when it came up it was as expected -- everything in English.

- The only exception is the PinyinIME Keyboard which still has Chinese characters (I use the other keyboard instead - Solved).

NOTE: After installing the CWM Recovery (ColonelZap's), the touch screen slide on the device no longer functions as "Enter". The power button is used to "Enter" the selection. The touch screen & the volume '+' and '-' buttons are for scrolling through the menu items.

and Finally some acknowledgments ...

Thanks to Manuxo, ColonelZap, MayiandJay, Greg Tay, and countless others here for chipping in with bits and pieces of information directly and indirectly through their questions and answers.

Hope I made the steps detailed enough to provide some clarity to others in a similar situation.

Cheers!