[Q] N00b question about wiping (not my ass) topic

I've been trying out some of the various roms for the Nexus 6 for the last couple months. My question is about going from one to the other. Everyone recommends a "full wipe' but some describe full wipe as factory reset while others say go into advanced settings in twrp and hit everything. Anyway, i've been wiping everything which also takes out the data in the sd folder and any rom or gapps you were planning on flashing from internal. I've been pushing the zip files to the device from the command prompt once I'm in the bootloader, and then going into recovery to flash. Is this the proper method and what everyone else does? Seems like I'm missing an easier method. Thanks for the Noob help and looking forward to the future of this device..... promising.

[Q] n00b with 2 new/ Tmobile Avants - rudimentary questions about custom roms topic

Hi ... I'm a n00b when it comes to phone hacks but not technology so please don't dumb your answers down on account of me. ;)

We bought two Tmobile Samsung Avants a cpl days ago (one to use and one as a spare) because the price was right and I'm leaving a WM device for Android. HOWEVER I don't like the idea that Google, who has no personal or business relationship with me, has access to all my personal information just because I'm using a phone they've branded. So I'm looking for an Android ROM that doesn't have Google tentacles in it.

I've been researching this since we got the phones but I'm not clear on what ROMS are avail for my phone ... it doesn't look like cyanogenmod has one (although they have one for my gf's old Exhibit T599!! ) - is there a repository, website or thread I haven't found that has a list of what's out there? am I stuck rooting the phone and MANUALLY removing everything? The phones have Kitkat installed.

I saw a youtube vid where they've ported Lollipop to the Avant - would that come de-Googled?

Do Android ROMs from Android come without a Google footprint? Some users have posted that Android as an independent company is not necessarily Google and their OS is NOT a Google product so my thoughts are you can have one without the other.

Any help / info is appreciated. thanks!