For the love of god, help me root my (not-so) Incredible

March 13, 2013 6:29 PM

I'm failing miserable at rooting my Incredible. I'm very, very new to the whole rooting concept, but the low storage space detailed here is unacceptable, and I can't afford a bigger SD card or new phone. Help?

I'm trying to follow the instructions given here, but can't seem to get past the first step of getting my command prompt to "c:\miniadb_inc>" When I follow the instructions exactly as given, all I get is "Invalid Directory." I'm stuck, and no one in my house/time zone seems to be able to help. Can you?? Alternatively, do you have a different "fool proof" way to root?

posted by csox to Technology (5 answers total)

Did you rename the folder once you unzipped it or unzip it to the wrong location? If the message says "invalid directory", that means wherever you unzipped it isn't at c:\miniadb_inc (in Windows, open explorer and go to "my computer"(xp/vista) or "computer" (win7), then to your C drive. The folder should be there and have the name "miniadb_inc".

That said, if you're having trouble already, you might be in for a world of hurt if something goes wrong. You're still working on the easy part.
posted by zug at 8:20 PM on March 13, 2013

Response by poster: I unzipped it in it's original downloaded spot, then moved the unzipped folder to C, without renaming. It's frustrating, because I'm not usually this incompetent. I think you may be right about the world of hurt looming around the corner :(
posted by csox at 9:11 PM on March 13, 2013

If you open up Windows Explorer, and just type c:\miniadb_inc into the location bar (press enter), the folder should show up. Alternatively, navigate to it from the C: drive and look at what folder is in the location bar.

But I'd agree with zug, rooting can be convoluted and you really don't want to get stuck in a half-rooted state where nothing works. You might find it hard to completely break your phone but it's very possible to leave it in an unusable state until someone with know-how looks at it.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:55 PM on March 13, 2013

I used Unrevoked to root my Incredible, and the process was fairly painless as far as I remember. Just remember to install the USB driver if you're on Windows.
posted by schmod at 7:30 AM on March 14, 2013

Response by poster: Well, I was able to root using Unrevoked (thanks schmod!), but now I can't get a new ROM on. Cyanogen isn't avail for the baseband my phone's running. How bad would it be to download it anyways? (I'm not super concerned about jacking up my phone, as it was practically useless with the arbitrary low space restrictions it had previously)
posted by csox at 3:02 PM on March 15, 2013