How To: Load a Custom ROM on the HTC Evo 4G

I. Before You Begin

1. You MUST have done our How To Root the HTC Evo 4G (Unrevoked Method) procedure before doing this one.

II. Loading a Custom ROM

1. Head over to our HTC Evo ROMs section and choose a ROM you want to try. Download it and save it to your computer (do NOT extract it, leave it as a .zip)

2. Plug the phone in via USB cable and mount the sd card so we can transfer files to it.

3. Copy the ROM .zip file and save it to the root of the sd card (NOT in any folders just on the sd card itself). Once it is done copying, unplug the phone from the usb cable.

4. Turn off the phone, then turn it back on by holding down Volume Down and Power until the white bootloader screen comes up. Now using the volume buttons select Fastboot, then select Recovery and wait for the phone to boot into recovery mode.

5. Scroll to Wipe Data, select wipe data/factory reset and then select wipe dalvik cache.

6. Now scroll to Apply .zip from sd card and select the ROM .zip file we saved to the sdcard and wait for it to finish flashing. Once it is done, hit reboot and you are all set! Enjoy! If you want to flash a different ROM, simply redo this procedure and choose a different ROM.

60 thoughts on “How To: Load a Custom ROM on the HTC Evo 4G”

  1. When I download the recovery.img file the name just stays recovery, but in the tutorial it says recovery2.img . Also, it shows up as a zip file. Since its named differently when I am type command prompt “/data/flash_image recovery
    /sdcard/recovery2.img” it says not found. Everything worked flawless until this point.

    1. ok, i got past the sdcard recovery, but when my phone reboots its comes up to an image of the phone with a warning sign on top. Please let me know what to do fix this.

      Thanks in advance for your help
      Tom

  2. Hey I installed the damage control one and it said it was installed. When i restarted the phone it keeps gettin to the Evo screen and then restarting like bunches of times without it booting up!!! HELP!!!

  3. Hey David, always a help need some more though lol. Everytime I wipe data and cache than try to install zip from SD it says no such file or directory? Any words of wisdom?

    1. Peter,

      That means it can’t find the .zip file. Which means one of three things:

      1. You did not save the file AS a .zip to your memory card
      2. You did not save it to the root of the memory card (which means NOT in any folders, just on the SD card itself).
      3. If the recovery image you are using looks for update.zip and doesn’t let you choose a .zip then you need to make sure it is named update.zip

  4. Woops, I am an idiot, I fixed it myself, But I still can not get my wifi to connect. I guess unrooting is my only option

  5. Could you suggest a ROM for me? I am thinking the 2.2 rom but I am still new to all this and am getting to my wits end with it all. I just want my phone to run complete

  6. Also, I don’t understand why the wifi doesn’t work if it I flashed the stock rom. Something that also troubles me is that when I just tried unrooting it says I have the wrong rom. I AM SO LOST

  7. ok ok, forget it all. I got cyanogen 6 working. BUT STILL NOT MY WiFi! I need help, I just wanna use my damn phone over wifi

  8. hey i got few questions….

    i dont know what CyanogenMod to get, but i did an educated guess and went with the latest installment of it. Is that the correct thing to do?

    also when i go to the hboot mode after i updated the SD ZIP it makes me upddate the SD ZIP again, and will not let me get to my clockwork recovery mode, it just takes me to the update screen, and when i say no i takes me to the original recovery screen.. and keeps doing this…

    also all the data is off my phone form when i unlocked the nand, is that normal? i figure it is but just wondering.

    you guys do a great job at explaining dont let me down now, thanks again
    mike

  9. okay i know why its doing this..
    PC36DIAG is still on my SD (should i delete it?) … and hboot finds it on reboot,,,, in the instructions it says we should say no when it asks up to update (which ive updated like 30 times) and then select fast book then go in to recovery… there is not recovery in my fast boot… i am stuck at the brink of cyarogen, (and dying for it) please help?

  10. for some reason i can not load and of the roms its does the same thing as Neal it gets to the evo white screen and restarts oover and over i have to restore the phone each time couse it will never boot up can somebody plz help me

  11. my mac keeps automatically unzipping the file. i tried to correct this by compressing the file back into a zip and it didnt work

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