[scarmon25]

Pretty much to accomplish what your after all you need to do is Odin a recovery to the phone. Then boot into the recovery by shutting down the phone and holding the power, volume up and volume down button all at the sane time till you see the Samsung logo. Then once you're in recovery. Use the volume button to scroll down to backup/restore. Use the back button to select. Then do the same thing but select backup. Then if you need to restore you do he same thing but instead of choosing backup you choose restore. Keep in mind you only Odin the recovery once. If you need a recovery to Odin I have a few in my dropbox

 

[scarmon25]

You're fine. Yeah. You only Odin the recovery once. Unless you update the phone or take it back to stock in which you would have to Odin it again. As for the files types. .tar files are for Odin. They go into to PDA slot. .zips are one of two things. They are Daugherty made to.be flashed in a recovery. Or Odin files that need to be unzipped. The way to determine.would be the OP where you got the file. If you are simply wanting to make a nandroid. Then Odin the file I have linked and the follow the before mentioned instructions for getting into recovery and making the backup. If I need to go farther in depth I can.

http://db.tt/rmWls9k

 

[scarmon25]

Almost. Put the .tar file in the PDA slot. And no Keis will work if you're rooted. But I may hold off on the recovery cause I have heard that it will not work if there is a custom recovery image on the phone. You may try just using the stock gingerbread thread. Phidelt who is an amazing developer just posted a prerooted stock gingerbread file made for Odin. And since there is currently no way to root GB once its on the phone. This may be a better option for you.

 

[scarmon25]

Then one he posted is the same thing that comes in Keis. Its just been rooted and made for Odin. It will most likely be easier than using Keis

 

[scarmon25]

Truthfully its damn near impossible to brick this phone. Me personally. I would go the Odin route. When you download the file it will be a zip. Unzip it. There will be a .tar.md5 file and and a .pit file. The .tar.md5 goes into PDA and the .pit goes into PIT. That's it. I would use the latest version which I believe is linked in that thread as well. But thats how I would do it. I don't use Keis anymore.

 

[scarmon25]

Yeah when you Odin it wipes the phone and flashes the new version of Android. So this in when you would want to use titanium backup to backup your apps. If you let Google backup your contacts then they will restore in their own as soon as you sign back in. One sec and I will link you too the post that has the file.

 

[scarmon25]

Here's the post with the file in it. http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?t=3922&page=9&p=82122&viewfull=1

 

[scarmon25]

No you won't loose anything stored on the SD card. Just apps and app data.

 

[scarmon25]

Keep in mind you will need to Odin back to ee19 before flashing cm7. The eh09 modem breaks SMS/mms in mtd roms like cm7

 

[scarmon25]

Yeah. Dfgas put that out on his twitter the other day. So all you have to do is Odin ee19. Then Odin the cwm4. Then boot to recovery and flash cm7 or whichever MTD ROM you're wanting.