ClockworkMod Recovery is a utility that allows Android phone and tablet users to completely backup or restore their device, erase data, or install custom software. Up until recently there was no easy way to install ClockworkMod or any custom recovery on the Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet, but hackers have made great progress working around the tablet’s locked bootloader recently — and now there’s a simple one-click tool for installing ClockworkMod.

One-click is a bit deceptive, since you’ll need to have a rooted tablet before you start. If you’re running NOOK Tablet OS 1.4.0 then you can follow our step-by-step guide for rooting the tablet. If you’re running OS 1.4.1 or later, you may need to downgrade to 1.4.0 first. You can find steps for doing that at the bottom of this article.

Note that you will probably void your warranty if you try this, and there’s no official support. So proceed with caution.

OK, so assuming you’ve got a rooted tablet that supports installation of third-party apps, here’s all you have to do:

Download Indirect’s latest NOOK Tab Recovery Flasher.apk from the xda-developers forum on your NOOK Tablet. From the download notification area, tap the NOOK Recovery Flasher.apk file to start the installation process. Run the program once it’s installed. Tap the “Flash CWM” button to install ClockworkMod Recovery — technically this is the “one click” part of the one-click install.

That’s it. You may get an alert from SuperUser asking for permission, but just go ahead and grant it. Once the installation is complete, wait about 10 seconds before rebooting your tablet, but then you can tap the “Reboot Recovery” button to load ClockworkMod.

From there you can backup your device, restore from an earlier backup, or flash (install) software such as the Google Android Market and other Google apps. Eventually you’ll also be able to use ClockworkMod to replace the default NOOK software with custom ROMs such as CyanogenMod.

Note that ClockworkMod lets you save your system backup to a microSD card or to internal storage. If you get an error message saying that your system can’t mount the SD card, try ejecting it and re-inserting it and trying again. This seems to be a known issue.

If you need to restore the stock NOOK Tablet recovery app you can fire up the NOOK Tab Recovery Flasher again and choose the “Install Stock Recovery” option.

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