How To Root The Verizon Galaxy Nexus, Flash A Custom Recovery And Back It Up

December 16, 2011

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How To Root The Verizon Galaxy Nexus, Flash A Custom Recovery And Back It Up 4

So you're sitting in your man cave (or lady cave) after purchasing the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon and wondering to yourself, what's next? Easy, root that mother, flash a custom recovery on it and then back it up! Thanks to @Koush of clockworkmod and a thorough walk through from our friends over at Droid Life, here's how to perform the necessary steps on the LTE version of your device. Of course, you're doing this at your own risk so pay attention! However, it's pretty easy. Enjoy your new found freedom.

Rooting and flashing a custom recovery:

*Unlock your bootloader first. [Instructions]

1. Download ClockworkMod Recovery for the G-Nex. [Download] 2. Place that file in your SDK/Tools folder (same place as your adb.exe).
3. Download the superuser file aka the root file. [Download] 4. Place that file in your SDK/Tools folder.
5. Open a command prompt from within your Tools folder and type the following:

adb push su.zip /sdcard/

6. Then reboot into the bootloader:

adb reboot bootloader

7. When the boot menu loads, flash the new recovery image:

fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img

8. When that finishes, use the volume keys to highlight “Recovery mode,” press power to select it.
9. From recovery, scroll to “Install zip from sdcard.”
10. Then “choose zip from sdcard.”
11. Choose the “su.zip” file and install it.
12. When that finishes, back out of recovery and reboot the system.
13. Enjoy being rooted with a temporary recovery. (Permanent instructions below)

Afterwards, you will want to install ROM Manager from the market and have it re-flash recovery for you.

Make your first backup:

1. Now that you are rooted and have a custom recovery, it’s time to make your first clean backup.
2. In ROM Manager, flash Clockwork recovery again (it’s the first option up top).
3. Then tap the option to reboot into recovery just below that.
4. Once in recovery, scroll down to “backup and restore.”
5. Choose “backup” and let your phone create a backup.
6. When finished, back out of recovery and reboot the system.

If you want permanent Clockwork Recovery (via XDA):

1. Install Root Explorer from the market and delete /system/reboot-from-recovery.p – *Mount as R/W first*
2. Reboot into Fastboot Mode: Power off your device and (Power + Volume Up and Down)
3. Flash CWM (fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img)
4. Reboot into OS (fastboot reboot)
5. You now have CWM recovery permanently installed

[via DroidLife]

Joe Sirianni Author

Joe was born in New Jersey and spent most of his childhood moving around from state to state. He eventually made his way to Pennsylvania where he met his Portuguese beauty and made her his wife. He now has three great kids and full access to all of the Portuguese food he can eat. Joe's love for mobile technology began when he bought his first Palm Pilot, a Palm M130 and left it on top of his car, driving off, causing it to smash into a thousand pieces. Forced to buy a new device, he quickly discovered that specs were changing so rapidly he was buying a new device every six months just to keep up. Since then, he has constantly felt the need to have the latest and greatest. When the "smartphone" revolution began and integrating cell phones and PDA's was the norm, he quickly jumped to Windows Mobile for several years until the first Android device was launched, the T-Mobile G1. Joe began appreciating all of the free utilities Google provided and sold his soul (his precious data) to Google long before they got into the mobile OS business. So, there was no hesitation at all for him to jump on board and ride the Android train as an early adopter. And boy has it been a blast. Joe now works in the Engineering & Operations dept for a major mobile carrier where he remotely troubleshoots cell sites and loves being an Editor for TalkAndroid.