Upgrade/Re-Jailbreaking Urgency, Help Greatly Appreciated. (Lengthy Read)

[Agent51]

This is my first post but I've been a "lurker" here for awhile. I apologize in advance for the long read, but I'd rather be as thorough as possible and give all the details of my issue now than have to keep adding info and waiting for replies on all the new info. Here goes:

I have a launch-day 3GS running 3.0 FW jailbroken with PurpleRa1n RC2 method. I am still on 3.0 for a few reasons. The first being when 3.1 first cane out the JB community was saying 3GS users shouldn't upgrade right then, and plus there weren't any new features I wanted enough to re-do the whole process anyway. Then it was OK to upgrade and re-JB but I do a TON of travel for work and since then it has seemed that everytime I finally have a chance to sit down and gotheough the upgrade/JB process I read that Apple has just released a new FW (no lie, it has been EVERY time, it's crazy timing lol) so to hold off until new JB tools are released and safe. It's been that "vicious circle" for awhile now. It hasn't really bothered me though since 3.0 was always fine.

However, for a few months now my phone has been messed up pretty bad. I can't install any new apps/games from the official app store or cydia, nor can I update any of the ones I currently have, without the phone "crashing" and rebooting itself into safe mode. And sometimes I browse safari and it just crashes and/or reboots itself into safe mode. It also does other weird stuff like if the battery goes below 20% and I plug it in to charge, it will "shut down" and just go to the Apple logo screen and stay there for a good 10-15 minutes. There are a bunch of odd things going on but for the sake of the thread length I won't detail every single one. So it's to the point now where I NEED to restore the phone and make it "up to date".

My question(s) would be what method would be the best for my situation? I'm not a "technology noob" lol, Im pretty good with it actually, but when it comes to JB'ing there are just so many different methods and tools that I am just not familiar or experienced with (that's why I used PurpleRa1n in the first place, fast and simple). Using them isn't the issue, I can follow instructions/tutorials well, it's just knowing which one(s) to use and such that confuses me. I've read that my baseband is very desireable (given that it's the launch-day one on launch day FW, so never upgraded/changed) and that if I preserve it the resell value is much higher since it can be unlocked or whatever, so I'd LIKE to preserve that ability, but only if possible, it's not a must, upgrading and re-jailbreaking is my main focus, preserving baseband is just a nice bonus.

The thing that may (or will) be an issue is the blobs. I do NOT have them on file. This goes back to all the travel and not using Cydia for a LONG time so I never saw that "store my hashes" option until like 3.2 and I never clicked yes (or no) because I thought I couldn't since I was on 3.0 not 3.2. Upon further research I learned about the TinyUmbrella thing but that would not work for me. Nothing showed up when I ran the program, and I even followed YouTube tutorials. It was as if it didn't recognize my phone was even plugged in or something. So I'm assuming my only options are going to the newest official Apple FW since I can't use the hashed to go to an older one?

Here are my specs (not sure if they are all relevant, but again, for the sake of fully detailed disclosure, I'm including them):
Phone - 3GS (launch day)
FW - 3.0
JB - PurpleRa1n RC2
PC: Windows XP (home edition I belive)
iTunes - Whatever one was out at the 3GS launch. Never upgraded because early on the JB community was saying not to for future 3GS JBs, but I can easily upgrade if need-be.

I am EXTREMELY sorry for the MASSIVE post, I know it's an Internet "no-no" lol, but this phone issue is driving me nuts and I finally have time to sit down and fix it. There are a lot of knowledgeable people on this board (from what I've seen as just a guest reading the forums for quite awhile now) so Im hoping someone can help me figure this out. Any help/info/guidance is GREATLY appreacited.

Thanks in advance,
Jason

[pratt1503]

You need to try and get Tiny Umbrella working first as that will effect what advise you will get. As even though you have not clicked make my life easier on Cydia there is a good chance that they are saved, because you have had the jailbreak for a long time.

Have a look here

[How-To] Using tiny umbrella to update/downgrade/restore

Let us know if you get it working and what it says

[Agent51]

If it helps Cydia now says my hashed are saved for 4.2.1. It was a complete fluke actually. I opened it (Cydia) and then my phone slipped and I caught it and my thumb was on the screen side and must've hit right where the "accept" area was because when I looked the question was gone and "4.2.1" (with a + sign after it) was listed in green up top.

[pratt1503]

If you only have shsh saved for 4.2.1 then they is no way you can restore to anything below 4.2.1

So you could upgrade to 4.2.1 by connecting to itunes and clicking upgrade and iTunes will do it's stuff,

Then you could Jailbreak with redsn0w which would be a tethered Jailbreak on the new boot room, But as seen as you say it is 3GS first day the chances are that it will be the old Boot room.

All of this will be fine as long as you dont need the unlock as there is no unlock available yet for 4.2.1

Tethered just means that if you need to re boot your phone or you turn it off you will need to be near your PC to boot tethered.

here is a guide if you want to jailbreak once you have upgraded to 4.2.1 with itunes

iClarified - Jailbreak Wizard for iPhone, iPad, iPod, AppleTV