The HTC HD2 still is a great smartphone, the only drawback is, it runs Windows Mobile 6.5, which is outdated and much less flexible than Android. To get an idea about how the phone looks and feels running Android, one can place an Android build to the SD card and run it from there. At android.hd2roms.com a list of the most recent Android builds can be found. Some are SD ROMS which can simply be put to the SD card and some are NAND ROMS, which have to be flashed to the device.

SD ROMS

Download a build that suits you and place it inside the root folder of your SD card. The folder should contain a file “clrxad.exe” and “haret.exe”. First execute the clrxad.exe file. You actually don’t see anything happen here, this is normal. Then execute the haret.exe file. Your phone will reboot and boot into Android. First startup might take a while. When you shut your phone down again and reboot, it will boot Windows Mobile as usual.

NAND ROMS

To flash Android to your mobile phone’s ROM a little more effort is needed. Note that this can break your device, so you do it at your own risk!

Note that your Windows Mobile , SMS and contacts will be removed. In a future post I will show you a nice and easy way to export your contacts, so you can import them into your Android.

In order to be able to flash a new ROM to your device you need to install HSPL. Without HSPL you could ony flash signed ROMs for your device, e.g if your phone is T-Mobile branded, you could only install official T-Mobile ROMs. The most recent HSPL version is HSPL4 and can be found here.

Installing HSPL

connect your device to your computer with active synch. Once the connection is established, run the Hspl4.exe on your PC and follow the instructions. Note that if you plan to flash Android to your Phone you have to select 2.08 HSPL in the menu. For more details about installing HSPL read on here.

Once HSPL is installed, you need to install MAGLDR, which is a bootloader. Basically you have to download a file, connect your phone to the PC and execute a Rom Update Utility contained in the downloaded folder. See here for step by step instructions.

FLASH ANDROID

You are almost done. Select a ROM you like (e.g from android.hd2roms.com ). There are different ways to flash the ROM (e.g from SD card etc.). The one described here is quite simple. Just make sure you download a ROM containing a DAF.exe file.

Shut your mobile phone down. Press the volume down key and hold it while you switch your phone on. The MAGLDR bootloader will be displayed. Connect your phone to the PC. Navigate to the menu entry “USB flasher”. You can navigat up and down using the volume up and down buttons. Then click the phone button (the left-most button). Wait until your PC has established the connection and execute the DAF.exe file. This will flash Android to your phone. Once this is done, reboot your phone and it will directly boot into Android.