I didn't perform a hard reset, I just copied the files to my SD card, then followed the basic flashing instructions-- popping out the batt, place SD card in, hold up vol^ button then place batt back in, etc... all my data's wiped out when downloading the DS (or something or other) and the BL, takes about 15 minutes for the flash process to complete, and like everybody else said, the Windows Mobile splash screen takes about 2.5-5x longer than usual. A few soft resets afterwards would probably benefit.