[HTC Amaze 4G] chevycowboyusa:
Your welcome!

If you're using the web to look at xda, there is a thanks button on the lower left side of the screen before the very end of the post line.

If you're using the XDA app, you have to tap on my post, and it should have a thanks selection in the options that come up.

A few more suggestions.

1.) How to save user installed content and the factory ROM image before wiping it out so it could be eventually restored if needed.

A) one you are rooted you should be able to back up all of your user data through a nandroid which is available in TWRP or 4EXT recoveries. This will back up everything to be able to restore exactly like it was before you change roms.

(NRG is my ICS preference, and Afnan has a good modified stock rom. ARHD (revolution) is also a good one without too many frills.

2.) How to prepare the phone for installing a new ROM

B) again, Root - s-off (really a good idea and not too hard to do) - dev unlock - and Super CID

3.) What new and stable ROM images will work with given phone and how to obtain them and in what form? Zip, rar, or what?

C) any roms listed in the dev section in the Amaze forum works. And, they should all be Zip fles. You can restore somone elses nandroid back up, but not adviseable.

4.) In what SD Card directory or in USB-connected PC directory the new ROM should be.

D) anywhere (except the PH85IMG.zip MUST be on the root of your EXTERNAL sdcard)

5.) How the flashing process would look like? Expected phases and length?

E) There are two types of rom flashes, standard and Aroma (thanks @amarullz)

1) Standard just does it's thing and when it's done, it returns you to the recovery menu to reboot.

2) Aroma is a highly configurable installation (preferred for selections of different kernels and adding or removing apps, keyboards, cpu freq's and much more) after it's done, most often it can reboot directly from the installer. ARHD has this type of installer, also NRG roms, and mine!

6.) Do I need to lock the new ROM's root just as the factory ROM was? How would I do that?

F) all of the "Custom" rom's (even thought some may be stock) should be rooted. A rooted rom containd the busybox and super user bianaries and apps (IE chanfireSU or SuperSU)

7.) Any special issues when booting the new ROM for the first time?

G) You shouldn't have any issues when booting a new rom for the first time. Some do require a little bit of behind the scenes set up time. Most users see just the boot animation reach the end, or it may seem like it's not doing anything, but it's doing an unbelievable amount of background processing, dexopting, and some comminucation with the carrier for data and validation set up. Some may take five to ten minutes to complete depending on the amount of apps and goodies that are in the rom.

H) if you see the HTC logo for an extended amount of time, more than five minutes, and you dont see the boot animation (which varies by rom) then you are stuck in a preload loop. This happens when you flash a carrier specific rom without being "Super CID", or you may not have flashed the kernel (if you are S-Off this won't be a problem) because you didn't select smartflash from the recovery settings.

** I had issues trying to install ARHD at first because there is a firmware update, a requirement to be Super CID (probably the easiest of things to do), and some roms specify that you should be using TWRP recovery instead of 4EXT, or vise versa.

8.) How would I restore the original factory ROM saved in step 1?

I) nandroid restore :) There is also a rooted stock rom based off of the latest OTA ICS Update. It is just like the rom that comes preloaded, or updated to on stock non-rooted phones. If you go that route, flash the "Stock ICS" rooted rom and do an advanced nandroid restore and only restore your data. That will (should) get you back to where you started from but keeping root, S-Off, Dev unlock, and Super CID.

I rewrote some of what I noted befor so maybe other's can benifit from this knowledge. And I wanted to expand on a few items. All good questions!

There's a lot of things that happen in the background that people need to see sometime (pull a logcat) to see the crazy lines of code flying by on a terminal screen.

If more poeple took the time to understand all of this it would reduce the amount of errors while flashing and poeple would be more happy.

And in doing so I think people will learn more about what they are doing, and the more you do it, the better you get at doing it.

Enjoy!

Chevy