Beginner's questions on tweaking non-branded Android phone (rooting, update recovery, update rom)

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Closed 6 years ago.

I have some beginner's questions for clarifying some concepts in Android phone.

I am using a non-branded phone (ASK SP404) running Android 4.0.3. The Android OS in the phone comes from the manufacturer and it is non-rooted. I could use normal apps from Google Play but not the more powerful ones that need root privilege. Recently, I want to find a way to backup and restore my phone's rom (like Norton Ghost). However, from my previous thread : Could a non-root Android 4.0.3 smartphone's rom be backup?, I know that this operation seems impossible without some serious tweakings of my phone. "Tweaking" involves risks so I want to clarify some concepts before performing such potentially danger tasks.

My questions are :

1. 
   

   Does every Android phone has a Boot Partition, a Recovery Partition and a Rom Partition ? (Boot Partition stores the Linux Kernel, Recovery Partition stores the BootLoader and the Rom Partition stores the other Android system and application files)

   
   


2. 
   

   Is every Android phone's BootLoader locked ? How could I tell whether it is locked or not ? (Supplementary Info : I could go into the Factory Mode of my phone by turning on my device with "power on" + "home" key, the Factory Mode has the following menu items :

   
   

   Factory Mode
   Full Test
   
   Item Test
   Test Report
   Version
   Reboot
   

   
   

   It seems that my BootLoader does not let me to backup/update my phone's rom. I can't tell whether it is locked. Moreover, when I enter the "Version" option, the following information is listed :

   
   

   IMEI1 : 35958561001666
   IMEI2 : 35958561001666
   S/N code :
   MT012345678901234567
   
   10
   SW Ver. : HTC_A100_V401
   Custom Build Verno : 1331982298
   

   
   

   I am not sure whether this phone has used a HTC A100's firmware rom ! ]

   
   


3. 
   

   Must I unlock the BootLoader if I want to update my phone with a custom rom (e.g. CyanogenMod) ? What exactly is the meaning of "unlock" ?

   
   


4. 
   
   

   Must I unlock the BootLoader if I just want to root my phone to run some rom backup programs such as "romdump", "titanium backup" etc ? If not, would I void my phone's warranty by just rooting my phone ?

   
   


5. 
   

   I know that the "SuperOneClick" program could be used to root many Android 2.2/2.3 phones. Could this program be used to root an Android 4.0.3 phone ?

   
   


6. 
   

   If the "SuperOneClick" rooting process fails somewhere along its way, would the failure hurt my phone and brick it ?

   
   

That's all my concerns before I would actually perform some serious tweakings to my phone. I am sorry if I have asked too many naive questions and/or I am looking for too much, but I hope the answer(s) in this discussion may be beneficial to other Android tweaking beginners.

Thanks for your attention. Any suggestion ?