[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] fukenbiker:
TWRP and CWM are custom recoveries.

I still remember what it was like to be brand new here.

If you're still trying to get your arms around flashing and rooting and what not, let me spell it out simple biker style right here. Maybe this will save someone.

A biker like myself thinks stock bikes need to be chopped. You can't buy cool, you have to make it.

First thing you need to do is be able to chop it. Out comes the angle grinder called: "ROOT".

Root is desirable and enables complete control over the device. Apps like Root Explorer must have root in order to work. Root Explorer lets you get into the phone all the way deep inside and like an angle grinder, can turn your motorcycle into useless pieces.

Stop right there with Root if you are pretty happy with your Harley and want loud pipes and maybe a cam and a new carb for a little more oomph. Stay stock. Reliable. It's not a chopper, but you have a little bit of cool happening. Go install cool things like Titanium Backup so you can freeze things in your phone from happening like the AT&T Update service that will prevent any OTA updates.

THIS IS WHAT NEW FOLKS MISS: Check your Baseband Version. if yours ends with MF3 instead of MDB or MDL?

if your baseband version ends in MF3 this is where you stop

You have one of those new imaginary Harley's that are impossible to chop. It will never run again. It won't even start up. The wheels won't even roll. It's a garage ornament if you try and make it more cool than it is right now, bone stock, with a few add ons.

Chances are, you're a biker that wants to take cool all the way to the next level. MF3 Soft tails are for sissies. If it's not a rigid, it's not a chopper. We're going all in. We have the right stuff. Our basebands end in either MDB or MDL, we don't have the unchoppable MF3. We are going to make cool happen. So you need a welder. a custom recovery and there are a few to choose from, Tig, Mig, or CWM or TWRP. Folks with baseband versions ending in MF3 are stuck with their stock bikes, which are very reliable, and their ability to root lets them do cool things, but you can get that really long, raked front end you always wanted....because your baseband ends in MDB or MDL.

MF3 owners, stop reading. You'll just be eaten up with jones'n....

Here's where a phone is different than a motorcycle. You get to keep your stock bike while you're extending and raking your front end. There are lots of names for it. Nandroid. Flashing a backup. Recovery Image. So once you pick whether you want TWRP or CWM or whatever, you are now set up to KEEP YOUR STOCK BIKE!

Boot into your custom recovery. For me and my penchant for Tig over mig, I went with TWRP. I shut my phone off. Waited a spell, read the directions on the desktop computer again. Then I held it in my hands and planned my moves. I was ready to release the power button only while continuing to hold the volume up, as soon as it vibrated, and then let go of volume up when I saw a blue speck in the top left corner of the screen.

(play the sound of a welder crackling and hissing, and a grinder screaming it's shower of sparks everywhere)

You find the place in your custom recovery to make a backup Sometimes you can discover a way to choose where to store the back up, on the phone's internal, or your own external Micro SD card. This is called flashing a backup image nandroid and perhaps other ambiguous techno babble, try and swallow it like you did when you learned that knuckle, pan, and shovel were all different names for the same darn thing, it's an over head valve pushrod V twin with some style differences. It's still a motor. That's the bottom line.

Once you get this far, you have the ability to always go back into your custom recovery and restore that nandroid image, or backup file, or recovery, or whatever you want to call it so you can have your stock bike back up and running again, just in case you can't weld that stupid raked neck on straight and get it to ride right. If there are any MF3 readers still following along, you don't get to HAVE this. What you can DO is go into your STOCK recovery and factory reset your device to get rid of your root. You can then go and get root again. But that's it. Stock. or Stock rooted. No custom recovery for YOU! If you TRY to install a custom recovery it will BRICK IT!

And of course to finish the biker story, you have all you need now to flash if you have root, and a custom recovery, and a back up made. Put a copy of that back up on your computer too.

Hope this helps the blue collar that comes along all excited about chopping his new harley. Make sure the Baseband version ends in MDB or MDL. And most folks reading this are AT&T and Canadians this time are the ones that luck out.

Click settings, about phone, and examine your Baseband version. If it ends in MF3 you're M.F. 3 ways to Sunday if you learn how to root and then think you can use Goo Manager to flash a custom recovery! If you try it, you will brick it, and you will MF this and MF that and MF the MF out of the MF3.

(bow)