How To: Load a Custom ROM on the HTC Hero

I. Before You Begin

1. You MUST have done our How To Root (AndRoot) procedure, once done, you can return to this procedure to continue.

2. If this procedure does not work for you, head to our original How To Root procedures (click on How To at the top of the site, then Android, then HTC Hero/Sprint Hero).

II. Flash a Custom Recovery Image

1. Go to the Market and download Busybox by Stericson

2. Open Busybox and click install for it to install Busybox.

3. Go to the Market and download ROM Manager.

4. Open ROM Manager and click Flash Recovery at the top, choose your phone, and let is flash the custom recovery image.

III. Flash a ROM

1. Download a ROM from our ROMs section of our site (make sure it is made specific for your phone, Sprint for Sprint, GSM for GSM).

GSM Hero ROMs

Sprint Hero ROMs

2. Save the ROM to your computer.

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

4. Copy the ROM .zip file to the root of the sd card (NOT in any folders, just on the sd card itself)(do NOT extract the .zip file, leave it as a .zip).

5. Unplug the phone.

6. Turn off the phone and turn it back on by holding down Home and Power (keep holding both buttons until the recovery image pops up).

7. In the recovery menu, select Backup/Restore then select Nand Backup to backup your current setup.

8. Press Back to get to the main menu, then select Wipe Data/Factory Reset.

9. Once that finishes, Wipe Cache. Then Wipe Dalvik Cache.

10. Press the Back button to get back to the main menu.

11. Then select Flash .zip from SD card and choose the ROM file you saved to the sd card.

12. Once it is done flashing, select reboot system now. Once it reboots, you are running your custom ROM, enjoy!

133 thoughts on “How To: Load a Custom ROM on the HTC Hero”

          1. Well i tried both methods of typing in the flash command and it tells me “permission denied” and “image not found” as well as “rm failed for /data/local/……… no such file or directory”

            I also tried copying the flash img file into my sd card (without it being in a folder) and i got the same results.

          2. Marcos,

            Can you try something that might work and report back here on this post if it does?

            Go to the Market and search for BusyBox. Install the one by Stericcson and then open it and have it install busybox. Then start again with the steps to write in terminal. Let me know if that works, if not got one more thing for you to try.

    1. Can you try something that might work and report back here on this post if it does?

      Go to the Market and search for BusyBox. Install the one by Stericcson and then open it and have it install busybox. Then start again with the steps to write in terminal. Let me know if that works, if not got one more thing for you to try.

          1. Cool side Note********
            i also installed this on my girlfriends htc hero and had initially skipped the busybee part and i couldnt get rom manager to work, but after i installed busybee rom manger worked perfectly

  1. I’m having the same trouble with the flash_image: not found. I made sure that it was on the sd card and not in any folders. It has the correct name and all. I tried to do it both ways. The second way just says that no such directory exists.

    1. Christian,

      Can you try something that might work and report back here on this post if it does?

      Go to the Market and search for BusyBox. Install the one by Stericcson and then open it and have it install busybox. Then start again with the steps to write in terminal. Let me know if that works, if not got one more thing for you to try.

      1. BusyBox didn’t work but I tried the ROM Manager and flashed the recovery. Then I used ROM Manager to install the ROM from the SDCard. It works great and I’m glad I was patient with it. haha. Thank you very much for the tutorial and help.

      1. Kyle,

        Can you try something that might work and report back here on this post if it does?

        Go to the Market and search for BusyBox. Install the one by Stericcson and then open it and have it install busybox. Then start again with the steps to write in terminal. Let me know if that works, if not got one more thing for you to try.

    1. Rob,

      Yup, download ROM Manager from the Market (free version) and open it and click Flash Recovery. See if it will flash it. Let me know either way, and we can try something else if no. Thanks for helping me update the procedure

        1. I would also like to comment and say that after playing with ROM Manager for a bit it has made flashing the ROM much easier. Thanks!

  2. Hi there, i’ve rooted my HTC and it all seemed fine, so i moved onto the custom ROMs section. I’m at the stage where you enter the commands into the terminal emulator ( Better Terminal Emulator from the Market is the only one that would work for me) and I don’t get any error messages when i submit the commands which leads me to believe i entered it properly. But when i reboot the phone (holding the power and volume down key) I only get an option to Fastboot and Simlock. Any ideas what im doing wrong? Cheers

  3. I get this
    Android system recovery
    1) triangle with exclamation point. (somehow i got passed it, but still what is it?)
    2) E: can’t open /cache/recovery/command
    I do however have these options
    -reboot system now
    -apply sdcard:update.zip
    -wipe data/factory reset
    -wipe cache partition

    1. Means you didn’t flash the custom recovery. Download and install busybox by stericsson, open it and let it install, then download ROM manager, open it and click flash recovery.

  4. Bad try….I followed every step you poested, it was all good untill i reboot the cell. after rebooting, it says ‘The process android.process.media has stopped unexpectedly. please try again.’, it also cannot launch HTC Sense.

  5. Was not successful. Once I did the Wipe Data/Factory Reset step it also formatted my SD card so when I tried to install the .zip file it wasn’t there? I also don’t have an option to Wipe Dalvik Cache after wiping the cache?

  6. done everything in part 1 and 2, but when I do recovery it comes up with the image of a black phone with a red cross .. but Rom manager says the recovery image has flashed successfully.. is it possible to unflash the recovery image so I can try flashing it again?

  7. never mind, just flashed the alternative recovery instead, will try loading froydvillain tonight. I’ll post again to say the results.

  8. Alright, well, it worked 😀 had a few bumps along the way (mainly with the recovery image, but as I’ve already posted I just flashed the alternate recovery – ie. RA whatever it was). Just a bit of heads up if you’re doing this with HTC Hero GSM on Android 2.1 (not sure if it’s for all though): if you’re getting this issue where you get the red triangle & exclamation mark when trying to get into the recovery image OR you can’t get into the recovery image full stop (ie. it stays on the black “HERO” screen), flash the alternate ROM from RomManager (the one at the bottom). Restart RomManager and make sure it says RA Recovery v[numbers] AT THE TOP OF THE APP, UNDER “FLASH CLOCKWORKMOD RECOVERY”, NEXT TO “CURRENT RECOVERY:”. This will allow you to access the recovery image ONCE after EACH flash (ie. after flashing, you can access it until you restart the phone again – by restarting I mean full boot, because it’s something to do with Android 2.1, it like removes recovery images if one’s there at start up). So basically what I’m saying is: until you have installed a ROM, flash the RA Recovery every time you boot, otherwise you will just get the red triangle and exclamation mark when trying to get into the recovery image a second+ time. After you install a ROM, because it’s not Android 2.1 anymore, the recovery image will stay there even after full boots.
    Hope this helps (: e-mail me if you have any questions: justjoee17@googlemail.com

  9. Did everything to the “T”

    D/l Villiam Rom – installed as above….

    reboot

    The phone reboots and then just sticks at Villain Rom – We HTC – Loading splash screen??

    Help please

  10. Hi

    I rooted my GSM Hero 1.5 successfully
    Now i would like to know if a higher android version is included in the ROMs?
    Or do I have to update it a other way?

    1. @ExaM
      Firstly, congrats on rooting, secondly, yes, ROMs do have higher versions of Android. for example, I was using stock Android 2.1 Hero, after rooting and flashing the FroydVillain ROM I’m on Android 2.2 (:
      There are ROMs out there on both Android 2.1and 2.2, not too sure about 1.5 and 1.6 though. But the 2.1 vs 2.2 choice is down to personal preference.
      If you have any more questions or this was unclear, just email me at justjoee17@googlemail.com
      🙂

  11. im on the last vilainROM version and its working perfectly. very smooth. the music apps fail but i guess ill boost the cpu like vilain says and its all good. thx alot theunlockr !!! keep up the good work.

    1. Mine does the same. Everything worked fine, and when I try to reboot in recovery mode, it just freezes at the HTC 1st splash screen. HELP!

  12. US HTC Hero CDMA (Sprint) Did everything listed above. All seemed to work. Got to step 6 – reboot with power&home – and my phone is stuck/frozen on the White “hTc” boot screen. Please help!?!

    1. Well, gave it 5 minutes to boot at the HTC screen, clearly stuck. Finally, pushed and pulled battery and at least the thing boots – isn’t bricked. So, marching forward?!

      1. If anyone reads this, for the Sprint HTC Hero, Step II-4, “The Flash Recovery at the top” option from ROM Manager. This is what kept “white screening” my phone (wouldn’t go past the HTC logo screen trying to boot into recovery console.)

        FIX: I finally scrolled way down to “Flash Alternate Recovery – RA Recover v1.6.2.” After doing this, I can boot into the recovery console and everything was good after that. I’d suggest adding that as a Option or Note in the procedure as I see several folks have had the same issue.

        Does anyone know, specific to the HTC Hero, after doing a custom ROM, do you still need to disable OTA updates? I saw this specifically in someone else’s procedure and wondered if OTA updates could mess up my Froyo ROM? Just curious

  13. i followed all the steps and it worked great but now i lost all my phone contacts. anyway i can get them back? or am i fucked?

  14. I’m now on the last step of the Rom manager, trying to make a custom recovery flash. But when clicking the Flash ClockworkMod Recovery I get an error message saying “An error occured while flashing your recovery”.

    It also says “You must have the ClockworkMod Recovery installed to flash and restore ROMs!” beneath the Flash-button, however when browsing through the market I cannot find such a thing and it sure doesn’t say anything about in the description on this site. Anyone got any idea what to do?

    1. you need to get rom manger and at the top there is a section that says clockworkmod recovery. click it… wait for it to download and install then try to flash the rom again 🙂

  15. when it comes to pressing the home button and power my phone goes to a pic of a phone with a sign like this ! inside a triangel

  16. Did everything as indicated. Thanks so much..But one thing…I need to change my M.i.P and PPP settings my computer will not recognize phone and I am not able to put in diag mode via the dialer…

    lxboca

  17. Well this is what i tried.

    I installed Busy Box and Rom Manager.
    Did what was required in the ROM Manager.
    Downloaded Modaco 2.9 and put it on the sdcard
    Went to ROM Manager and from there, initiated ROM installation
    ….
    The process went on which was showing a command prompt, similar to MSDOS…

    2) Later it was showing HERO with the android playing around it.
    Then a glossy HTC logo.
    ..
    The step 2 kept looping again for 30 minutes.
    I was out of patience and pulled out the battery and booted the phone..
    NOW its only the White Splash screen.

    PLease Help, Mr. Unlockr !!!

  18. First, can I ask why you didn’t follow the instructions? 🙂
    Second, that happens some times, just take out the battery and put it back in, then get the phone into recovery mode (home and power to turn it on) and then do Wipe Data / Factory Reset then reflash the ROM.

    You MUST wipe before loading a new ROM (you would have done that if you didn’t decide to skip steps lol)

    Good luck!

  19. Hi, I followed all the steps carefully..I think. But when I reached step III.6 I am not getting the recovery image. Instead, I just get black screen with HTC logo on it. I kept the home and power on buttons pressed for around 5 minutes and tried the same several times with no luck. The steps prior to that went well including flashing the custom recovery image. Please advise..thanks in advance

  20. Hi, I followed all the steps carefully..I think. But when I reached step III.6 I am not getting the recovery image. Instead, I just get black screen with HTC logo on it. I kept the home and power on buttons pressed for around 5 minutes and tried the same several times with no luck. The steps prior to that went well including flashing the custom recovery image. Please advise..thanks in advance

  21. Hello every one I am new here…. Will this process work on my Telus hero..?? It is unlocked form AIRTEL(India) service.

    Baseband Verson: 63.18.55.06EU_6.35.06.18
    Kernel version: 2.6.27-8dd6deee htc-kernel@18-2.
    Build Number: 2.73.720.5 146733 CL#61267 release keys
    Software version: 1.0.A6288

    Now I am using BSNL(3G) sim in the phone. But in the wireless controls-> Mobile network settings it is not showing 3G network option. But only 2G.

  22. One, you have to root your Hero first then you can use this procedure to load custom ROMs.
    I think you think that that will give you 3G, but there is truthfully nothing you can do about the 3G. The carrier the phone was meant for probably has different 3G frequencies than the carrier you are using it on and therefore the phone can’t see the 3G network. There is NO way to fix that besides buying a new phone that has the 3G frequencies you need built in. It is a hardware limitation, not software.

  23. Hello
    Having a problem here. Glad if you could advise.
    I cannot find “ROM Manager” or “nandroid” app on the market. Went through Appbrain but link to market on my phone does not return anything. I downloaded the apk from the programmer’s website, when i try to install it, it fails with following message “ROM Manager could not be installed on this phone”.

    Phone details:
    HTC Hero GSM
    Firmware 1.5
    Baseband 64.18.55.06EU_6.35.06.18
    Kernel 2.6.27-8dd6deeehtc-kernel@and18-2 )
    Software 1.0.0.A6288
    Build number 2.73.241.5 146733 CL #61267 release-keys

    Thanks
    Tom

      1. Nope market returns 8 results for “ROM manager”, none of them is the one.
        Via appbrain, the rom manager is there first in search results, but when click on link to market, result is “there is no matches in android market for the search: pname: com.koushikdutta.rommanager”.
        Have an idea where the problem is?

        1. Same exact problem, we know how to search bitch its out the market and the phone will not install when Rom Manager is found by an outside source. Is there another program just as good as Rom Manager

      2. Nope market returns 8 results for “ROM manager”, none of them is the one.
        Via appbrain, the rom manager is there first in search results, but when click on link to market, result is “there is no matches in android market for the search: pname: com.koushikdutta.rommanager”.
        Have an idea where the problem is?

      3. Same thing. HTC Hero – Unbranded GSM, rooted, tried both bb 1.17 and 1.18. Here’s what it finds

        DroidRootHelper
        Rom Finder
        DroidEmuLite
        Camera 360
        SysInfo for Mobile Manager
        AdvInfo for Mobile Manager
        MiniFreeManager
        Car Data Manager (free)
        DroidGear 0.1.2

        Finds it in appbrain, but when I press Market, it says no matches for pname:com.koushikdutta.rommanager. When trying to install the apk, it says rom manager cannot be installed on this phone. Probably not Unlockr’s fault, but is there any alternative?

      4. Same thing. HTC Hero – Unbranded GSM, rooted, tried both bb 1.17 and 1.18. Here’s what it finds

        DroidRootHelper
        Rom Finder
        DroidEmuLite
        Camera 360
        SysInfo for Mobile Manager
        AdvInfo for Mobile Manager
        MiniFreeManager
        Car Data Manager (free)
        DroidGear 0.1.2

        Finds it in appbrain, but when I press Market, it says no matches for pname:com.koushikdutta.rommanager. When trying to install the apk, it says rom manager cannot be installed on this phone. Probably not Unlockr’s fault, but is there any alternative?

  24. i am having trouble gettting to the recovery screen. i do not need the memory on my phone just yet. i have just rooted it and i dont need it quite yet. ill add it later. but i want to put a rom on it before i do so. it states i have super user access. when i reboot and hit home at the same time it only shows a screen with a phone and a triangle with an exclimation point on it…. help please?

    1. ok so i have got the reboot screen to come up now. but i think that i do not have the same list of things to choose from.. so i opened ROM Manager and i cant get it to flash the custom memory. im not sure why. it dose not give me an error message or anything, but it says it dose it in like 2 seconds (i was looking at the progress bar that comes up…) and that cannot be right can it?

      Rooted HTC Sprint Hero

  25. Greetings! First and foremost, many thanks for your efforts and for sharing with others! I have rooted my Sprint Hero, installed BusyBox and Rom Manager. When I take the next step “Flash Clockwork Recovery” I do not get a phone type selection, and no recovery is flashed. I have re-rooted, reinstalled both BusyBox and Rom Manager, but get the same result. Any ideas? Thanks!

    1. So I was able to resolve the problem last week by upgrading ROM Manager, which suddenly kicked into gear and generated a recovery. I thank The Unlockr for providing all this information, and I hope that others might get answers in the future. Happy New Year!

  26. I have a Cox Communications HTC hero CDMA. It runs off of sprint towers is their any reason why rooting and putting froyo on my phone would not work with my provider?

  27. hey blake i have the same problem with the screen with the phone and the triangle. How did you open the reboot screen?

  28. Hello Mr.Unlockr My HTC Hero is rooted and i di everything to step 6 , but when i press home+power button it shows me a black screen whit an Htc hero phone and a triangle with an exclamation mark. What shall i do ?
    PLS Help me

  29. I went through all of the steps listed. And when I reboot nothing has changed. Not a thing… I have tried 5-6 different ROMs to see if it was just a bad download. Nothing

    Now I am wondering, when I download a ROM my Mac unzips the files. But I recompress them before putting them into the SD card. Any pointers?

    1. i had the same problem. MAKE SURE you open Busy Box and INSTALL IT FROM THE PROGRAM. it doesn’t install itself like most apps from the market. im dropping FROYO onto me hero now and its going great so far. but double check your busy box is installed from inside the app itself

  30. Cannot get this to work on a Sprint Hero! I have it rooted and have busybox and rom manager installed but when I try to Flash a Custom Recovery Image, I don’t think it is doing anything, the bar at the top says ROM Manager v2.0.2.6 and it shows that it is doing something but it only takes a few seconds and when I try to do anything else I get an error that says “you must have ClockworkMod Recovery installed before continuing! Install the recovery through ROM Manager first.” and I can click install or cancel. Install does the same as explained above. Please help.

  31. when i go to install busybox, it fails because i have not nand unlocked my phone, or it was unable to remount. where do i go from here?

  32. hi there.. what custom ROM would you recommend for the Sprint HTC hero.?? i just want the phone to be fast and get rid of the sprint apps.

  33. hi there.. what custom ROM would you recommend for the Sprint HTC hero.?? i just want the phone to be fast and get rid of the sprint apps.

  34. hi there.. what custom ROM would you recommend for the Sprint HTC hero.?? i just want the phone to be fast and get rid of the sprint apps.

  35. Your tutorials are great! However, when I downloaded the ROM that I wanted (Red Dawn) first of all, I wasn’t sure if I actually downloaded the ROM correctly from the website. Which link do I click on? Secondly, is “mounting” the phone’s sd card simply selecting “disk drive” on the phone instead of the “charge only” mode? Finally, when I rebooted the phone and followed the steps one by one, Red Dawn is not on my phone as a ROM. Do I need to do something else or did I do something wrong?
    PLEASE HELP!!!!!

  36. Updated Sprint Hero successfully but had to enter recovery mode by way of Rom manager, NOT by restarting and holding the home and power buttons.

  37. Updated Sprint Hero successfully but had to enter recovery mode by way of Rom manager, NOT by restarting and holding the home and power buttons.

  38. Thanks, just RE-Rooted my Hero (The Classic Droid) due to old rom kept crashing. Easier the 2nd time (not saying the first was hard). Any-hoo, THANKS AGAIN !!!!

  39. I have been trying to flash a custom ROM on my phone for several weeks. I have rooted my phone from your instructions of the one click method (thanks btw, i would have never got this far if it wasnt for your instructions). My problem is, i have tried downloading ROM manager numerous times but it always gives me an installation error. I have even tried downloading ROM manager off of the internet, saving it to my sdcard, and installing it from my sdcard, and it says that it can’t be installed on my phone. HELP PLEASE!!! I have made sure my phone is rooted several times through busybox and it continues to say it is rooted, so I need your intelligence at this point, mine is wearing very thin about this kind of stuff lol THanks again for the info though, I have practically lived on your website for hours on end learning new things about my phone! 🙂

  40. hey guys my wifi/interwebs were fine before I flashed to this rom today but when I sign into google it says “can’t establish a reliable date connection to the server”. My settings are as follows:: data enabled(check), data roaming(check), system select(automatic) any help would be great

  41. I go through all the steps and everything is good until I try to install the ROM. It keeps saying Installation aborted.

  42. I have a Cellular South Hero and tryint to install FroydVillain 1.7.0 . I see now it says error in SD and installation aborted. Can anyone help me with this or do I need to try another ROM for the phone?

  43. Hey
    I got a problem with saying idont got space to install busybox after downloaded it. I have been uninstalled alot of games and stuff like that but still says same

  44. there is an easier way i have found as well. from rom manager go to load rom from sd card, when prompter check the two boxes (backup current and wipe data/cache) then press ok to let rom manager open recovery and it will take it from there. it will open recovery, backup and wipe everything then install the rom/mod for you

  45. Hey unlockr, I have rooted my phone twice now (once the old way using goldcard and now I have done it using universal Androot) and my friend told me to install Rom Manager and then install the Rom from there. It no doubt failed but I can’t install busybox due to lack of space (I have at least 13mb of space on my phone yet it says i have less than 40kb…) I was wondering if there was a fix for this?

    Also when I have rebooted my phone in recovery it loads an image of a phone with an exclamation mark in a triangle if that helps. It hasn’t worked for either micro sd cards I have used (one goldcard and the other not goldcard)

  46. i was getting the same problem aswell but really all you need to do is get a custom recovery image!!

  47. Mine is HTC HERO GSM firware 1.5. I am not able to search for ROM Manager.
    I can search for ROM Manager on my PC but not using my phone.
    Please help

  48. hi, on my htc hero, it comes up on the android market that ROM manager is not compatible for my phone, why is that??

  49. ROM Manager has been pulled.  The current version is 2.2+ only.  Is there a way to flash the recovery image on the CDMA Hero (S-ON) without ROM Manager?

  50. Hi there,

    I’ve already rooted my htc hero GSM but when i go to market and try to download ROM Manager, it doesn’t appear?
    I only see the premium version. I looked it up on de google market in my browser (windows) and it still exist but it is not supported for the htc hero.

    Is there an alternitive for this app?

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.