[MDA, XDA, 1010 Software Upgrading] pdhenry:
I do my ROM updates using the XDA's bootloader and an SD card. This seems to work a little better with less chance of things getting messed up. There's also a way to run an installer program on your PC but my observation is that a lot of people who have had problems have used this other method.

a few questions first:

Who is your carrier now?

Do you have an SD card 32MB or larger? (If you don't you'll need one.)

Does the phone/Internet work satisfactorily (even though it's in German)?

DISCLAIMER: I am an idiot. I've probably forgotten some crucial detail or two here. It's up to you to figure out where I'm full of sh*t before starting.

Spend an evening or two reading all of the threads in this 'ROM Updates' forum. It's good to understand the ways something can go wrong and how to avoid making that happen.

Back up all of the data on your XDA before starting. This includes your contact/calendar/task data (normaly these sync with Outlook on your desktop PC when you run Activvesync) as well as any documents that you have saved to device RAM.

Some people do a full backup of their XDA, but it's tricky to restore from this backup when you're not restoring to the same OS version that you backed up from. So I don't bother - I just make sure my outlook data and documents are stored away somewhere safe on my PC.

Back up any data that you've stored on your SD card. You'll end up erasing the SD card as part of the process.

Go here:

http://www.xda-developers.com/XDAtools/

and download XDA tools. You'll use this program to move ROM images to the SD card in your XDA to update the ROM.

Go here:

http://www.romanweb.com/yorch/

and in the "ROM Kitchen" section choose the elements you want to have installed in your XDA along with the OS. The XDA has leftover space in the available ROM memory after the basic Operating System is in there, and the kitchen allows you to put other stuff in here (so it won't take up RAM unless you're actually using it). You can choose a European O2 image or a US T-Mobile image. As long as the bar at the top of the page doesn't read "Overload" you can make a ROM image with what you have selected. Make sure that "Zipped NK.nb1 (SD-Card flashing)" is checked, and press "Build ROM Now" The kitchen will go work for a few minutes and finally will indicate that it's ready to download. Make a note of what your choices were for this image (this is more important after you've been playing and you have downloaded a few different ones), and download the ZIP file to your PC.

You need some software like WinZIP to extract the nb1 file from the ZIP file. If your version of Windows (XP, 98Plus, etc understands "compressed folders" this will work. Use whatever method to extract the .nb1 file from the ZIP file that you've downloaded.

(NOTE: You CAN'T just rename the extension of the file to .nb1 if it's something else like .zip or .exe. Sounds obvious that this won't work but people try it anyway)

Put your SD card into your XDA (you've backed up the SD card, right?) and press the soft reset button on the bottom while holding down the power switch. This will put you into the "Wallaby Bootloader" of the XDA. Read about it here: http://www.xda-developers.com/bootloader/ Press the Contacts button on the upper left of the front to the XDA, and use the joypad to highlight CE+BOOT TO SD. Then press the middle of the joypad to start the copying of your machine's Rom to the SD Card. The screen will count up the progress until it indicates that it's done. Remove the SD card and reset your XDA again.

Put the SD card back into the XDA - it will detect that the SD card is no longer formatted (the ROM image overwrites the formatting) and will ask to reformat the card. Select Nein (German for No). Put the XDA in the sync cradle, and use XDA tools to move the ROM and Boot files from the SD card to your PC for safe keeping. IF you've backed up both the ROM and boot files there should be an .nb1 (ROM) and an .nb0 (boot) file to transfer

Now use XDATools to move the new ROM image .nb1 file that you cooked up in the kitchen onto the SD card. When this is done, remove the XDA from the cradle.

Make sure your battery is fully charged. Don't want to run out of juice during the next step.

You might want to turn off the phone part of the XDA next. I haven't, but people always wonder what will happen if someone calls you while you're in the middle of an upgrade.

With the new ROM image on the SD card in the XDA, soft boot the XDA with the power switch held down. This time the XDA will recognize that there is a ROM image on the card and will offer to install this image.

If you don't get the screen offering to install the image, make sure that you installed the ROM image to the SD card using XDATools. Just copying the file to the SD card using activesync or Windows file copy won't work.

When you do get the offer to dowload the ROM image, press the "Action" button to do so. Again the counter will count up, and when it is done the system will do a checksum (to make sure it got loaded right). If the checksum is OK, it will tell you to Hard reset the XDA. Remove the SD card, and press the button inside the tiny hole on the right bottom. This will turn the XDA all the way off. Wait a couple of seconds, and then press it again to Cold Boot the XDA.

If you've been good, the XDA will boot up with a new, English ROM version installed.

***

Some other notes:

If your bootloader is Version 5.17 the above process won't work (the bootloader version is shown on the first bootloader screen). Read the xda-developers page about the bootloader for info on what to do if this applies.