During the Hadean eon the Earth developed from a proto-planetary disk to a cool, water-covered and ultimately habitable planet. Studying this period, however, is hampered by the lack of a preserved rock-record. Piecing together the Hadean Earth requires multi-facetted study that includes evidence from (1) rare >4 Ga zircon crystals, (2) imprints of Hadean processes in post-Hadean rocks, including their zircon, and (3) planetary analogues. Following the discovery of Hadean zircon in the Jack Hills over three decades ago, these invaluable time capsules have been subjected to an increasingly diverse range of mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic investigations aimed at extracting the maximum information possible (several methods have probably developed more rapidly because of the existence of these grains). As more Hadean grains emerge from sediments worldwide, the potential to expand our knowledge of the Hadean increases, and whilst we are beyond the point where a single > 4 Ga zircon merits a high-profile paper in its own right, their continued rarity deserves that they are investigated with the greatest care in order to avoid geological red herrings. In this regard, the large zircon suite from the Jack Hills provides important lessons in how to determine whether enclosed isotopic and geochemical signatures truly represent the age and initial isotopic state of any individual grain or simply result from some later disturbance that renders the information at best misleading. Providing a given grain is sufficiently large, replicate analyses, at least for both for U-Pb geochronology and δ18O are essential. In contrast to direct information available from zircon, post-Hadean magmatic rocks provide indirect evidence of their mantle and/or mafic proto-crustal source region via a wide range of measurable geochemical parameters, either in the bulk rocks themselves or their mineral constituents, including zircon. Critically, the record of the evolving mantle-crust system in the early Earth may be discerned by careful investigation of Eo- to Paleoarchean additions to the continental crust, both felsic and mafic. The use of feldspar Pb isotope data from Eoarchean TTGs in SW Greenland to infer a Hadean basaltic stagnant lid and its destruction is fully consistent with Hf isotope data from the Jack Hills zircon suite, highlighting the value of multi-method approaches to understanding the earliest Earth. Models based on vast detrital zircon datasets that result in estimates for substantial amounts of continental crust at the end of the Hadean cannot be reconciled with this and are likely wrong, pointing to the need for a better understanding of crustal-mantle co-evolution throughout geological time. Planetary analogues suffer from limitations in studying the early Earth given the lack of samples and the fact that the Earth, probably uniquely in our Solar System, experienced the “reset” of the Moon-forming giant impact. Nonetheless, ancient cratered surfaces of our closest neighbours testify to the intensity of meteorite bombardment that has to be considered in Hadean evolutionary models, while understanding planetary diversity has terrestrial implications with regard to compositional modifications from accreted late veneers.