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How To Root Motorola Droid

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Getting root access on your Android phone gives you access to a lot of features not otherwise available to the user. It also grants superuser rights to the user, which are not given by default as any changes made through the superuser account can possibly harm the operating system if not done carefully.

However, if you want to use your Droid to the fullest and you know what you are doing, please go ahead and root it with the below mentioned guide. In order to root your device you will need to replace the stock recovery one that allows the rooting of the device.

Requirements:

Steps for Windows:

  1. Install RSD Lite for Windows.
  2. Once RSD Lite installation is complete, reboot your system.
  3. Install Motorola’s USB Drivers and reboot your system.
  4. Connect your phone to the PC and wait for any drivers installation.
  5. Power off your phone while it is plugged in.
  6. Power on your Motorola Droid by holding the Power key and the Up button on the D-pad.
  7. Open RSD Lite on your system as administrator (right-click and Run as administrator).
  8. Click on the ‘…’ button to browse to the location of the SPRecovery ClockworkMod recovery file and select it.
  9. Once selected, the ‘Start’ button would be enabled. Press Start to flash the recovery image on your device.
  10. Once the recovery has been flashed, you will see a “rebooting the device” notification on RSD Lite. Close RSDLite once the phone has rebooted.
  11. Go down to the common steps below.

Steps for Linux:

  1. Connect your Motorola Droid to the PC via USB and Power it off while it is connected to the computer.
  2. Power on your Motorola Droid by holding the Power key and the Up button on the D-pad.
  3. On your Linux PC, Open terminal and type the following commands: 
    chmod +x sbf_flash
./sbf_flash MC1_A855_1282081087_Recovery-Only_SPRecovery_0.99.3b.sbf
  4. Once it is done, your device should reboot.
  5. Go to the common steps below.
Common Steps:
  1. Now reboot your phone into recovery. To do this, power the phone off, then press and keep holding the X key on your keyboard and press the power key.
  2. Once your phone is in recovery, go to ‘install zip from sdcard > choose zip from sdcard’.
  3. Locate the superuser zip file you coped to the SD card earlier, and install it.
  4. Once superuser has installed, reboot your phone.

Congratulations! Now you have a rooted Motorola Droid and are able to use many applications that require root access such as screenshot, or various system backup apps along with enhanced Android features such as tethering.

[via CyanogenMod Wiki]
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Read Full Bio
Fahad Abdullah

A Robotics Engineer by profession, driven with a geek's urge to learn, to understand and to keep up with the rapidly changing technology all around us. I'm an Android enthusiast and hope to contribute what little I can to the Android world.

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270 Comments

    • That’s because u did it with less than 50% battery, you need to have a full charge or you will screw up your phone. And ur phones fine, its just it doesn’t have enough battery

  2. Anyone had a positive experience with these instructions? I’m a little scared to follow them, as most comments seem to imply that it didn’t work, or, worse, segfaulted.

    But maybe all the people for whom it worked didn’t leave a comment or thanks?

  3. So aparently the files to download are all destroyed because the server’s hard drive crashed…
    Dang. Any mirrors?

    Also, does rooting a device mean no automatic updates? And do I have to reinstall all my apps and files if I am to update?

  4. @Someguy

    Really? I’m full-blood American, but that doesn’t mean you have to hate other people. Don’t be racist.

  5. “By Fahad Abdullah”

    Since when did ragheads start understanding actual technology?

  6. How do you tell if the Phone has been rooted I still can not see a skull and crossbones in the applications screen. Also, the Drocap2, which requires a rooted device still does not function.
    I am running;
    Android Ver: 2.2.2
    Kernel Ver: 2.6.32.9-g68eeef5
    Build # FRG83G
    Is there a different rooting app I should be using? I have tried all rooting apps on the market without success.

  7. I get a segmentation fault when I try to sbf_flash with the spf file under linux. When I load the file under windows it does not activate the ‘start’ button. Is there a problem with this file?

  8. hey man how do i reverse the process if i need to take my device in for some reason? thanks

  9. What do you mean, by holding the up button on the d-pad?

    I have a droid x and there is no up button.

    • Dear n1ar,
      The guide is for the Droid , not the Driod X. Droid has a Golden D-pad on its hardware keyboard as shown in the picture thumbnail. The black boundary are actually buttons.

    • Are you blind? Or just more dumb than usual people. This guide is NOT for the Droid X. It’s for the Droid! There are tons of guides for your phone.

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