How many memory partitions does a device have?

[a cooperator]

Hi,

I have this type of Smart phone:

Model Name: Samsung Galaxy Prevail LTE 8GB (Boost Mobile)
Model Number: SM-G360PZWABST

I want to be enlightened about partition layout each device has. Are there any analogies between how Windows PC hard disk layout works and how Smart phones/tablets internal storage layout works? . I know Android devices store the system firmware in different partitions from the user software and data.
While trying running the Android data recovery program called 'diskdigger', I found there are about 9 memory partitions listed, and each of which is named with a name/title.



My questions are as follows:

1- is this memory partition layout was partitioned by the company made the phone?

2- I can repartition a new memory partition layout as I do with Windows PC?

 

[Hadron]

The partition layout will indeed have been specified by the manufacturer (though many of the partitions are common to all android devices).

As for repartitioning, it's possible, the methods are probably manufacturer-specific, but what do you want to do and why? Be very careful about such things, as you could easily render the device unusable while what you stand to gain isn't obvious. And you will need to be rooted and probably have more sophisticated tools than that too (the last time I did this it involved modifying the bootloader, which is exactly as dangerous as it sounds, and something I've not even considered on more recent devices).

 

[iowabowtech]

Partition tables, sizing, contents and numbers of partitions vary with every Android device model. This specificity and the proprietary contents that live within don't allow for much, if any editing.

 

[a cooperator]

The partition layout will indeed have been specified by the manufacturer (though many of the partitions are common to all android devices).

As for repartitioning, it's possible, the methods are probably manufacturer-specific, but what do you want to do and why? Be very careful about such things, as you could easily render the device unusable while what you stand to gain isn't obvious. And you will need to be rooted and probably have more sophisticated tools than that too (the last time I did this it involved modifying the bootloader, which is exactly as dangerous as it sounds, and something I've not even considered on more recent devices).

Thanks a lot,
I have never ever worried about I could easily render the my Windows PC unusable while repartitioning HDD. Why playing with the partitions of a device could easily render the device unusable?

 

[mikedt]

Thanks a lot,
I have never ever worried about I could easily render the my Windows PC unusable while repartitioning HDD.

I've actually seen that been done several times. Thing becomes corrupted, doesn't boot any more, and hopefully one has bootable backup.

Why playing with the partitions of a device could easily render the device unusable?

Same way as messing around with the partition configuration on a PC I suppose. Something goes wrong, it's dead in the water.

 

[Hadron]

Thanks a lot,
I have never ever worried about I could easily render the my Windows PC unusable while repartitioning HDD. Why playing with the partitions of a device could easily render the device unusable?

You didn't say why you wanted to do it or what you wanted to do, which would make it easier to answer. But let's take as an example the changes I did make to an older phone.

The problem with the original HTC Desire was very limited internal storage. The /data partition (user apps and app data) was a whole 147 MB in size, while /system (ROM) was 250 MB. So in order to allow more user space I repartitioned to shrink /system and grow /data. An obvious risk is that if /system is too small the ROM won't fit (bricking the phone) - in fact this was only possible because I also replaced the ROM with one that was much smaller than the manufacturer's one. But the bigger risk was that it required editing the bootloader, and an error there would render the phone incapable of booting and could also have made it impossible to reflash the original, which would be a true bricking of the phone.

Note that back then the partitions were much simpler. /data was just apps and internal app data, and /sdcard was the actual SD card. These days /sdcard is a virtual volume mapped onto /data, with several other paths to the same virtual partition and other virtual volumes being present. My phone has two system partitions, which make seamless updates possible. Messing with this lot would be a lot more complicated than back in 2011, with many more ways of fouling up.

And if you were just thinking of having a second user partition (i.e. splitting /data), then leaving aside the complications of the various virtual volumes, how would the phone know that the new partition existed, that it should be mounted or what should use it? Creating a new partition would by itself only, at best, reduce the space available in the original partitions, and you would need to do a lot more work to use it (and the reason for the virtualized volumes was to allow you to use the storage more flexibly, so this would be counterproductive anyway).