Last Updated on September 1, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake

If looks were anything to go by, you will either love or hate the HTC Hero by Sprint. It is uniquely looking in the way it has round corners. What helps it out in that department is that it is small. However, what is small quickly became rather large in stature.

Dating back to 2009 when it first came out, it received rave reviews. Some even pinging the HTC Hero as the smart phone of the year for the Android operating system. It was increasingly clear it was living up to its name by the year’s end.

HTC Hero

Going up against the likes of the Touch Pro, Blackberry Tour and the Palm Pre, it came out ahead of the mall. Root access wasn’t far to follow, however, it had its hurdles to overcome. Patches came out to take away unlocked bootloaders and things became tricky. Today, though, if you are looking to root it that is fairly simple to do thanks to the Super One Click tool.

Details of Note

  • This guide is made for the HTC hero and no other device. Do not try to install it unless you are with the Sprint phone carrier in the US.
  • This tutorial can be used as long as you are running the stock firmware that it came with out of the box. If you have upgraded to anything else you will need to check out whether this is compatible or not.
  • Backup all of your applications by visiting the Google Play Store and installing any number of options available such as helium, Titanium backup and SMS backup. You should also backup all of your contacts and personal data to the devices internal SD card storage. It is not expected that this root process will wipe any data, but in the odd case that corruption happens with files it is better to be safe.
  • USB cable to connect the handset and the Windows-based computer.
  • Enable USB Debugging mode by going to Settings > More > Developer Options > USB debugging. If Developer options is not yet enabled then go to Settings > About Phone and click on the build number seven times.
  • You will need a computer, notebook or laptop with a USB slot working to complete this guide. Furthermore, make sure the USB Drivers are working and up to date.

How To Root The Sprint HTC Hero Using SuperOneClick

1. Download the package from here and save it on the computer.

2. Connect the Sprint HTC Hero to the computer.

3. Right click on the root file and select run as administrator.

4. Inside the Super One Click program, select root.

5. It will now handle everything else for you.

6. Look on the screen for any further instructions to follow until the steps are finished.

7. Do not just unplug the handset from the computer unless you have stopped the process properly by right clicking on the USB icon in the task bar and then selecting stop device. It will help ensure everything works well afterwards.

If things did not go as planned take another look over all the things that explained to you before you should have started the manual. If all else fails, you always can perform a factory reset from here.

Sometimes we can see the issues arise from the Odin side of things and not the device or computer. If this had just been the case for you we still need you to disconnect the handset and then make another connection and try again. Before you plug it back in, make sure that Odin is up and running properly again or else it will not have solved anything.

Before you think about doing anything, now is the time to back up your EFS folder. It is something most people are never told to do. However, it is one of the most critical elements you can make a mistake with if not paying attention. Failing to back this up could lead to difficult times ahead if anything goes wrong. With it stored, on the other hand, you will be fine to restore everything.

HTC has some cool custom Rom’s which can be installed from this point onwards. You can see one of them showed off in the image, in this article. There’s also a video of that one that can be found. The short clip has been put together by MoDaCo who is a talented developer for Android aftermarket things. You might recall the MoDaCo switch that was named after him.