clear storage

[pistu]

I hate my touch pro2, it is nothing but a piece of crap.Too much lag, too many soft resets, too may hard resets. so finally giving into this flashing and above all that I played with EVO yday it is a 1000 times better.

All I wanted to do was talk, text and email people is it too much to ask from a phone, f!@#()&$@ windows. Now that my rant is out of my way
here comes my noob questions:

1. Is hard reset the same as clear storage? I always did clear storage but see some ppl do the power volume button combo.
2. Do I have to hard reset before I unlock and soft reset after unlocking to do flashing?
3.Does anyone that uses the flashed roms can pitch in like how many times you have to soft reset your phone after flashing everyday. I know I cant ask question coz each one have their own preference. All I want to do is talk, text, browse once in a while and have emails. I am stuck with this phone coz of the contract extension, so trying to make a better use of it while I wait to upgrade.
4. I am really bad with technology so I am pretty sure I am going to brick the phone coz of flashing but finally came to conlcusion that the phone is worthless. I was on a call with a business client today and phone jus soft reset itself.. I am done with this phone so the giving in to flashing.