[G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Binary100100:
Okay... you have the recommended recovery and spl.

So all you need to do is get your rom and radio and store the zip files to the root of your sdcard. You don't need to rename them.

Just boot in recovery (power+home) and scroll down to:

[Alt+A] apply any zip from sd

And then you should see the zip files.

Upgrade your radio first.

Then your rom.

Another note... make sure you have a data plan once you've installed your rom. Depending on your rom version, you may not be able to sign in without one. If you can't sign in, you can't use your phone which is why most would recommend a custom rom or an adp rom.

Now... if I'm not mistaken... you do NOT have to partition your sdcard to install a rom (unless it's a HERO rom).

You may want to consider doing so however.

The advantages are that you can have virtually unlimited storage for apps and it's much easier to restore them after a wipe because they are still on your sdcard. Some apps will recognize the partitioned sdcard and automatically do all the apps2sd work for you by default. It is also recommended that you use at least a 2gb class4 card at MINIMUM. Any slower then a class 4 may result in system crashes and errors. Any less then a 2gb card is almost not worth all the effort since you'll likely be using at least a quarter of it for the apps2sd. I would suggest buying at least a 8gb class 6 card for less then $50 online. It's both fast and plenty of storage. With apps to sd, if you do need to wipe you still have all of your apps installed. A great advantage of having apps2sd.

Also... try different roms! There are DOZENS out there! Some have the htc music installed, some have myfaves, some have special cameras, etc. Don't be afraid to experiment. As long as you have a backup and can get to the bootloader (skateboarding androids) and a pc, you can't go wrong! If fact... with the 1.4 recovery you can store several different roms on your sdcard, backup your current rom, wipe, flash a new rom to try it, wipe, flash a different rom to try that one, etc. If you decide that you didn't like any of those... just restore back to your previous backup. Simple as that. No pc needed. However having a pc is handy to get logcat information if it's not booting for some reason.

Speaking of roms not booting... while your experimenting with various roms... you MUST have patience. Sometimes (based on my personal experience with about 10+ different roms) they can take up to 15 minutes to boot up. You can literally be staring at the ANDROID or HTC logo this entire time. Unless you are using ddms.bat or adb shell logcat, you will be clueless of whats going on. DO NOT do anything unless you get the infamous "boot loop". This will be obvious. It will stick at the ANDROID or HTC screen for a while and then blink and go back to the logo. If you see it blink and go back to the logo then try pressing power + talk + menu to restart it and then immediately press the home button to bo back to recovery. Wipe... try again. This time it should work. If it doesn't then restore your backup while you research on that partitcular rom. You may have skipped a step or not have the proper requirements (partitioned card, spl, etc).

With all of that said... good luck and you'll be posting help to other users like yourself before you know it. ;)