Rooting a Droid X with DoRootForWindows

First off, I must admit that I had no real reason to root my Droid X… other than to peak my curiosity and see what all the fuss was about. I decided to install Liberty 1.5 as, from my research, I thought it was the most complete ROM with an extremely active developer community.

Being new to rooting an Android, I did a ton of research to make sure I had a good idea of potential issues and how to solve them. While doing this, I ran into a lot of supposed “quick root” applications such as Droid2Root and RootMyX2 but both of them ran into issues and told me that it wasn’t successful after attempting to root my phone. So, I went the slightly more “manual” root by using a simple application called DoRootForWindows.

1. First, since you’re going to need to install the Android SDK you’ll need to download Java JDK. I’m running Windows 7 x64 and thought that installing the x64 version would do; however, you’ll also need to download the x34 version as this is what Google looks for.
2. Next, you’ll need to download the Android SDK package to your computer. It would be easiest to install it to something like “C:\Android\Android-SDK”. After downloading & installing the SDK, you should update it.
3. Now, you’ll need to download the Motorola Drivers: (32-bit or 64-bit)
4. After you install the drives, plug in your device directly into your computer (not through a hub) and set it to “PC Mode” (note: a lot of people have success in other modes, this is what worked for me).
5. Next, you need to enable USB Debugging on your phone and plug it into your PC. (Settings>Applications>Development)
6. After downloading & extracting DoRootForWindows.zip copy the files (not the folder) and paste them into the platform-tools folder (ie: C:\Android\Android-SDK\platform-tools\)
7. Double-click and run doroot.bat
8. Let it run (this can be the most frustrating part of all – I tried running it several times before it actually worked).
9. While running, it will tell you something like: “restart adb server on desktop and re-login”. In order to restart the adb server, quickly unplug your phone and plug it back in.
10. After your device is rooted, it’s time to search the marketplace for “clockworks bootstrap”. When you attempt to run this application, it should prompt asking you if you’d like to give the application superuser permissions (which you’ll want to grant). Click the “Reboot” option.
11. When rebooted, you’ll be given some options. It would be best to first backup your device. This could take ~5-10 minutes. You can navigate by pressing the volume buttons and using the camera button to select the option. Pressing the “power” button takes you back to the main screen.
12. Now, select “wipe data/factory reset”
13. Select “Yes — delete all data”
14. Go back by pressing the “power button”
15. Select “install zip from sdcard”
16. Select “choose zip from sdcard”
17. Find and select LibertyX-1.5.zip
18. Reboot your device.
19. Ta Da! You’re now using Liberty!

I hope this step-by-step really helps people curious about rooting their Droid X.