[Desire HD Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] briand77:
This post was originally a question to see if I got all the steps correct. Now that I have completed the process myself I thought it would be better to update it so other noobs might benefit from it.

First of all:

I do not take credit for anything. This is just a list of all the steps I had to take to get my standard phone to a rooted state with a custom ROM (LeeDrOiD in my case). Almost every word you will read is copied from the tool-makers guides. I hyperlinked the programs to their pages because they deserve all the credit and because there is a wealth of information to be found there. My attempt is merely aimed to streamline it for easier reading. This doesn't excuse you from reading their guides and information!

You will be messing with the core of your phone and risk bricking it. If you don't know what bricking is you should not try to modify just yet. First understand what you are trying to do. Just messing about because someone told you it is "cool" could leave you with a dead phone and an hole in your wallet.

If something goes wrong, don't blame me nor anyone else who gave you information. I can only say that I did exactly what I wrote in this post and it worked for me.

Your actions = Your responsibility

Now that the serious part is over; let's start messing up our expensive communication devices.

When you start a process and it appears to lock your phone or make it non-responsive; WAIT! Do not try to interrupt by pulling the battery. Just have some patience and if nothing happens after, let's say, 30 minutes; go to the XDA forums and ask for advice in the threads created by the makers of the tools. You could ask here, but since I am just a noob myself you really don't want my advice.

I first downloaded all the files I needed and then disabled internet on my computer. This way I could turn of the virus scanner and firewall off safely. This was just to make sure those two programs would not interfere with anything.

All this was done on a pc with Win7 Pro 64-bit.

Requirements:

Windows XP SP2 or higher

.NET Framework 4.0

HTC Sync (or ADB drivers)

Desire HD with stock kernel (or Apache14's 1.0.7 / 1.1.4 Sense)

It will not work on 1.72.405.3 or higher build, or new radio. Downgrade first!!

Step by Step:

Getting Root

1.	Install Visionary

2.	Open Visionary and tap temproot, then attempt permroot now.

The phone will reboot.

Getting Radio S-Off

3.	Connect your phone to a computer (make sure you have USB Debugging enabled.

Connect charge only!)

4.	Install "Desire HD easy radio tool" on the computer, run it and choose the first option, click "Do it"!

There may be a SuperUser request on your phone, allow it.

Getting ENG S-OFF

5.	Install "Desire HD easy s-off", click "S-OFF it"! There will be a SuperUser request on your phone, allow it. There could be force closes after the process, just reboot and everything will be fine.

6.	(Optional) I backed up all my apps using the free "My Backup Root" app from Android market. Not going to restore after installing the new rom because this might mess up things. Just using it as a reference so I can manually redownload all my apps.

Installing ROM Manager and ClockworkMod

7.	Download and install "ROM Manager" through Android Market.

8.	Disconnect phone from computer

9.	Launch "ROM Manager" app, select "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" and follow instructions.

Allow SuperUser request.

Installing LeeDroiD

10.	Download LeeDroiD HD ROM (and check MD5 hash). I used v2.0.0. Connect your phone to the computer (Disk Drive mode) and copy the file to the root of the SD card.

11.	Make sure you have enough room on the SD card for a complete backup. Mine was 750MB.

12.	Make sure the battery of the phone is charged and disconnect it from computer.

13.	Boot into recovery by starting "ROM Manager" and selecting "Reboot into Recovery"

Moving the cursor in recovery is done using volume up and down buttons. Power button functions as "select/enter"

14.	Once booted, select "backup&restore", then "backup" (this will backup your current ROM a.k.a. Nandroid backup to your SD).

15.	When the backup is complete, select " +++++Go Back+++++". select " Reboot system now".

Connect to the computer in Disk drive mode and copy the created backup (in clockworkmod folder) to your computer. If something goes wrong with the SD card during wipes/flashes, you will at least have your backup safe. After copying the files run the MD5 hash in the backup folder on your computer to make sure all files are intact.

Now we are going to wipe stuff, so if you are getting cold feet: NOW is the time to stop.

16.	Boot into recovery by starting "ROM Manager" and selecting "Reboot into Recovery"

17.	Select "wipe data/factory reset". Scroll down to "yes" in the next screen and press the powerbuttton

18.	Select "wipe cache partition".

19.	Under Advanced select "Wipe Dalvik cache" (Some people report Market problems when not wiping Dalvik)

20.	Select " +++++Go Back+++++"

21.	Select "install zip from SD card". Then "Choose zip from sdcard". Then find and select the LeeDroiD zip file on your SD card.

22.	Wait for the process to complete. Select " +++++Go Back+++++". Select " Reboot system now". This can take a long time since it is first boot. DO NOT reboot until you have completed the boot sequence and completed the HTC introduction/setup sequence.

Installing new Radio

-Reboot the phone again. Just to make sure everything is still working

-Connect to the computer and set to charge only

-Make sure USB debugging is enabled.

-In theory almost every radio (for your type of phone!) should work. It's just that one version might give better reception while another might have better battery life. Flashing the radio is another possible brick-moment so don't rush it.

23.	Install Radio Flash on the computer

24.	Open the Radio Flash folder which was created in the previous step

25.	Download the recommended radio for your selected ROM and check the MD5 hash

26.	Extract the Radio.img in the zip file to the Radio Flash folder

27.	Run "Start here" in the Radio Flash folder and a dos window will open

28.	At the prompt type "adb reboot bootloader". This will take the device directly to fastboot. It takes a little while (DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING)

29.	Wait for the phone to reboot in to bootloader screen.

30.	Type "fastboot flash radio radio.img" in the dos window

31.	Once it says finished in the window type "fastboot reboot"

YOU ARE DONE! Enjoy your upgraded phone.