After waiting for more than a couple of months, HTC finally released the much waited Android 2.1 update for HTC Hero GSM Mobiles in India.
I waited for this update for long time and updated my mobile last week. Thought of sharing the process here so that it is useful for others.
Preparing for the update
The Android 2.1 update consists of two updates. First update prepares your phone and the second update is the actual OS update. Both are OTA (over the air) updates and so you don’t need to download anything to your computer.
When you connect to the internet (either through wifi or through gprs/edge) you will get a prompt which will ask you whether you want to download the upload. If you for some reason clicked later, there is a nice trick to get the prompt again. The trick is to change the data and you will get the prompt immediately.
The first update is around 5 MB. Once the update is done, your firmware build number would be updated. If you have the same build and kernel numbers like the screenshot below then your update has just went fine.
Actual update
As I said before, the first update will prepare your phone for the OS update. In addition to the preparation part, it will update your Youtube player and will also add a new update menu to your phone settings menu, through which you can download the second update.
You can access this menu item by going to Settings->About phone->System Software Updates
Click the check button and it will show the below prompt.
Click Ok, to download the update.
This update is around 80 MB. If you don’t have a decent GPRS/Edge plan, then it would good if you could update when you are connected through wifi. Otherwise your phone data bill might go over your roof.
Once you click okay, phone will download the update and will install it. Your phone might restart a couple of times and once everything is done, you HTC Hero mobile will be running the new shinny Android 2.1
Precautions
Since it is an update to the base OS, it is recommended that you follow these precautions
- Even though the update will not erase your application and data, it is highly recommended that you backup your applications and data before proceeding
- As I said before, the downloads are more than 80 MB in size and if you don’t have a decent GPRS/Edge connection, it is better to use wifi
- It might take around an hour for the entire process to get over. So make sure that your phone’s battery is full.
- Also disable the unlock patters when the update is going on, since the phone might need to restart a couple of times.
I am off to play with the new update in my HTC Hero mobile, meanwhile do let me know how your updating went. Happy updating 
