It’s no surprise that CyanogenMod 9 has arrived for the Motorola Droid. It seems that every device always gets the good stuff, and the Motorola Droid is no exception, as Ice Cream Sandwich is now heading its way–unofficially, of course. CyanogenMod 9 presents a whole batch of new features and remains faithful to the Ice Cream Sandwich build.

The Motorola Droid may possess ancient hardware by today's standards, but developers loyal and faithful to the Motorola Droid are making it possible to get Ice Cream Sandwich running on the device.

If you still have your Motorola Droid (yeah, go get it from your closet now) and you want to breathe new life into it with Ice Cream Sandwich via CyanogenMod 9, check out the rest of this post for the instructions.

Some Reminders

The latest CyanogenMod 9 firmware is not the official version released or endorsed by Motorola. We advise you to follow the instructions carefully as the developers of this ROM didn’t provide any exact information about changes or bugs that may disrupt the functionality of the device.

As a precaution, this update should not be applied on phones that are networked-locked with carriers. This firmware can only be applied to Motorola Droid phones which have rooted firmware.  Therefore, this is not applicable to non-rooted phones.

We are not held responsible for whatever damage may be caused to your phone through your use of the information in this article.  Proceed at your own risk.

Requirements

• A rooted Motorola Droid
• Download CyanogenMod 9 for the Motorola Droid.  Get the archive here and save it to your computer.
• Download the Google Apps (gApps) package from here and save it to your computer.
• Temporarily disable (or uninstall) any antivirus or security app on your phone.

Instructions

1. Connect your device to your PC via USB cable.
2. Copy the CyanogenMod 9 archive and the gApps archive to your phone’s SD card.
3. Disconnect your phone from your computer.
4. Turn on USB Debugging on your phone by heading to “Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging”.
5. Turn off your phone.
6. Reboot the phone into recovery mode in this manner:
   1. Press and hold down the X key on the physical keyboard.
   2. While still pressing the X key, press the Power button once to turn on the phone.  Do not let go of the X key.
   3. Release the X key when you see the warning logo (with the exclamation mark inside a triangle).
   4. Press and hold down the Volume Up button, then press the Camera Shutter button.
7. Once inside recovery mode, select “Clear storage” to wipe all cached data.
8. Select “install zip from SD card”, then select “Choose zip from SD Card”.  Then, browse through your phone’s SD card and select the CyanogenMod 9 archive.  Confirm that you want to flash the file.  Repeat this step for the Google Apps package.
9. Select “+++ Go Back +++” and select “reboot system now” for the changes to take effect.

Congratulations! You have successfully upgraded your Motorola Droid to Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich via CyanogenMod 9.