Fastboot mode: what is it and why is it needed?

Quite often, many owners of mobile devices running different versions of Android OS (and not only), are faced with the Fastboot mode. What is it, knows not everyone. Therefore, now we will dwell on the basic concepts of this term and determine what for, in fact, it is needed. As an example, we will consider Android-systems.

Fastboot: what is it?

First of all, it should be clearly understood that this process implies the fact that the functioning of the mobile gadget does not occur with a complete shutdown, but, so to speak, in sleep mode (the inclusion occurs within five seconds).

A fairly common phenomenon is the situation where Fastboot-mode is activated, for example, when root-rights are received. Its inclusion helps to "kill" the gadget programmatically does not work, no matter how you try, because its software shell is in an inaccessible readable area of the system partition, so even with root-rights it's simply impossible to get to system files.

And this, as already understood, excludes any possibility of disruption of the device, which is of no small importance when installing unofficial firmware and patches.

Why do we need this mode?

We briefly discussed what the Fastboot mode is. What is this in a broader perspective, and what is its use, will become clear later.

The fact is that one of the main functions of this mode is the ability to reset all settings to factory settings. That is why it is also called the Recovery function. In doing so, its use gives the user a unique tool to restore the system, even if it installed some firmware or patches.

Needless to say, you can use Fastboot not only to reset the settings, but in the reverse order - to install the firmware (for example, using the ClockworkMod Recovery client). True, here it is worth paying attention to one important point: to work with a mobile gadget in this mode is necessary exclusively through a USB connection to the computer. That is, the device turns on the Fastboot, Windows defines the gadget through the installed drivers and assumes the use of the mobile device not as a regular removable drive, but as a device compatible with the ADB mode.

A set of utilities for working with Android-devices

Now a few words about how all this should work in the sense of binding the mobile device to Windows operating systems. First of all, you will need a set of special utilities that you can easily download on the Internet, say, as an archive.

Unpack it preferably in the root directory on the drive "C" (usually it will be the folder Tools). Then you can use Fastboot. The driver will have to be installed manually, because in most cases the system may not find them automatically. How to do it, we now look.

Fastboot Driver (ADB mode)

To correctly install support in the form of drivers, you first need to go to "Device Manager", where you select from the section of other Android devices ADB Interface.

Now go to the properties, and then use the driver update button. However, in this case, you need to select the driver (fastboot) android_usb_windows located in the USB_Driver section of the Tools folder. If the device is not detected automatically when connected to a computer, you should turn off the gadget, then pull the battery out for a couple of seconds, then go back to Fastboot and reconnect via USB cable.

After selecting the driver, it remains only to wait for the installation to complete. The corresponding inscription will appear on the screen, then, for example, to return to the original firmware of the device you will need to run the tools.cmd file and in the appeared command line alternately set the following: first fastboot -w, then fastboot erase boot, then fastboot erase system and, Finally, fastboot reboot. All. We got an absolutely clean gadget.

Now the device can be installed patches and firmware through the computer, even if there is no root-rights. As practice shows, this technique is very popular and effective.

You can install the firmware from the same folder using standard KDZ format (for example, for Nokia or LG smartphones) and flasher (Flasher) in the same directory with the preliminary installation of the device driver and disconnecting the external USB-modem in the "Device manager".

How to disable Fastboot mode?

As for disabling Fastboot, in principle, for all versions of Android, this is done from the settings menu, where the tick is removed from the corresponding field.

However, in Android 2.3 such a line is in the applications section, and in version 4.0 - in the screen settings. In any case, this is not a problem for any owner of such devices.

Conclusion

Here in brief and everything that concerns the basic aspects of the Fastboot mode. What is it, probably, is already clear. True, we did not consider in detail the issue of the full installation of the firmware (meaning a step-by-step instruction), nevertheless, if you have the appropriate tools in the form of a special set of utilities to deal with this problem, it will also be fairly straightforward.

In addition, as follows from the foregoing, the user can easily apply such a fast boot mode for complete system recovery, and this is the most effective method in most cases. Well, if we talk about installing new firmware, the advantage of this mode is generally obvious, because the user does not have to use special utilities to get root-rights. It is enough that at his fingertips only the gadget and the computer with the installed Windows system will be available to synchronize the two operating systems through the most common connection via standard USB ports. That's all.