How to Flash a Custom Recovery on the Sony Xperia Arc

The post below will show you the next step that will take your Xperia Arc to custom ROMland –  installing a custom recovery.  A custom recovery is a pretty useful thing compared to stock recovery, as you will be able to flash ROMs, make/restore backups, wipe cache/data, etc.  If that’s what you want, read on then to know how to install ClockworkMod Recovery (a very popular custom recovery) on your Sony Xperia Arc.

I.  Before You Begin

1.  Make sure that you back up everything that is important before you proceed.

2.  This procedure is designed to work with Windows 7; so make sure that is what you are running on your desktop before you begin.

3.  This procedure works on the Xperia Arc running Gingerbread or Ice-Cream Sandwich.

4.  You do not need an unlocked bootloader to install CWM on the Xperia Arc using this procedure.

5.  You need to be rooted before you can install CWM on your device.  Use our guide to help you with this if you aren’t already rooted.

II.  Necessary Downloads

RecoverX.zip [Download link available in the first post of this thread]

III.  Installing ClockworkMod Recovery on the Sony Xperia Arc

1.  Extract RecoverX.zip to a folder on your desktop.

2.  From the extracted folder, double-click on RecoverX.exe to run the program.

3.  From the “Choose your device” drop-down menu, select Xperia Arc.

4.  Select the either CWM Recovery 5.0.2.7 (Android 4.0) option or CWM Recovery 5.0.2.7 (Android 2.3)

5.  Enable USB Debugging on your device by going to Settings > Applications > USB Debugging (if you are on Android 2.3) or by going to Settings > Development (Android 4.0) and ticking the USB Debugging checkbox.

6.  Connect your device to your PC.

7.  Click on Next on the RecoverX program and follow the on-screen instructions.

8.  Grant superuser access on your device when prompted.

9.  Wait for RecoverX to finish installing CWM.

And you are done!

V.  Flashing Custom ROMs (Optional)

If you are ready to flash custom ROMs on your device, head to the next procedure to learn how to do that.

If this procedure helped you please thank/donate to the original developers here.

If you need help with this procedure, please ask in the comments below or in the forum.

This is part of our Android How To’s. We have how to’s on rooting, loading ROMs, and tons of other tips and tricks for your specific device or for Android devices in general! For all of our Android How To’s, head here.