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Droid X: Restoring and Rooting the Stock ROM.

I'll keep this short: if you're rooting your Droid X, changing ROMs, removing stock applications, etc, then there's a good chance you're eventually going to brick your phone. Having your phone "bricked" usually results in the Motorola logo being displayed indefinitely and or looping with the animated Droid X boot logo. A lot of users will then take it in for service, get it re-flashed, and get a lecture on potentially voiding your warranty by hacking the phone. However, there's tools available that allow you flash the phone back to the pristine state you first received it in.

This guide is designed for the 2.3.32 release of the Motorola firmware, aka the SBF. As such, you will also need to ensure that your bootloader is at 30.03 or higher. Instructions for upgrading both the firmware and bootloader can be found below.

Preparation:
You first step should be ensuring that you can get into the bootloader and taking note of the bootloader version. Upgrading to the wrong firmware or bootloader version can get you stuck in a loop. A more indepth guide is available at My Digital Life.

Getting into the Bootloader:

1. Hold down the power button at the top of the phone until you're given the option Power off. Select this option and power off the phone.
2. Boot the phone into bootloader mode. This involves some finger-ninja skills.
   1. While the phone is powered off, hold down the Volume Down button on the right of the phone.
   2. While still holding Volume Down, also hold down the Camera button on the right side of the phone.
   3. While the previous two buttons are held down, also hold down the Power button on the top of the phone.
   4. The phone will display the bootloader menu. From here we can restore the stock SBF.

Note: It's sometimes easier to pop out the battery, hold Volume Down + Camera, and pop the battery back in while holding it. You should immediately get kicked to the bootloader screen.

Necessary Tools:

• RSD Lite v4.8: This tool allows you to flash the SBF to your phone.

Necessary Files:

• Droid X 2.3.32 Full SBF: This is the image you'll need to reload your Droid X. You'll need to extract the SBF from the zip file that is downloaded.

Restoring your Droid X:

1. Get into the bootloader on your Droid X if you haven't already.
2. Open up the RSD Lite application. I usually run it as administrator.
3. Verify that RSD Lite is able to see the Droid X.
   
4. Browse to the extracted file in the previous step. It should appear under File Properties.
   
5. Click Start. The process will begin. Do not freak out, get impatient, or unplug your phone during this time.
6. Your phone will reset when finished. More than likely it'll be stuck in a boot loop.

Help, I'm Stuck in a Boot Loop:

1. Power off the phone by removing the battery. Hold down the Home Key. Plug the battery back in.
2. You should see an Android logo with an exclamation mark in a triangle. Click the Search Key.
3. Use the Volume Down key to navigate to the option "wipe data/factory reset". Click the Camera Key once.
4. Press Volume Down to scroll to the "Yes" option. Click the Camera Key once. The phone is now being wiped.
5. Press Volume Down to navigate to the option "wipe cache partition". Click the Camera Key once. The cache is now being wiped.
6. Select "reboot system now" and click the Camera Key once.
7. The phone will begin booting. The first boot usually takes a few minutes to complete. You'll need to update/activate your phone.
8. Go to Settings -> About Phone -> System Updates to ensure you have the latest version of firmware.

Note: Your phone is not rooted at this time.

Rooting Your Phone:

The processing for rooting the Droid X used to be involved and somewhat painful. Thankfully, RyanZA at XDA created an app that makes it a one-click affair.

1. Download the z4root app. Copy it over to the Droid X's SD card.
2. Ensure USB is set to Charge Only so the phone can see the SD card.
3. Go into Settings -> Applications and check "Unknown Sources".
4. Go into Settings -> Applications -> Development and check USB Debugging.
5. Open the File application, click on Phone Files, and browse to the z4root application. Click on z4root. Click Install when prompted. Click Open when finished.
6. You should now be in the z4root application. Click Permanent Root. You'll have to wait a minute while it obtains root access. Your phone will reset when it's complete.
7. Assuming z4root is successful, you should have an application called Superuser installed.

Congratulations. Coffee now tastes better, the sky is brighter, and the world is a better place. In the next segment I'll cover installing custom ROMs and applications.