Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange
Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [partitions]

A partition is a division of either your internal storage or your sdcard.

Internal storage of Android devices is devided into several partitions, each dedicated to a special "task". Some of the more important ones include:

  • /system: This is where the Android system and the pre-installed apps reside. It usually is mounted read-only, so on non-rooted devices you cannot write here (with the exception of applying a system update, e.g. OTA, or flashing a new ROM)
  • /data: Here the downloaded apps and all app's data are located. Additionally, some system settings are stored here, log files, and more

Your sdcard usually has a single partition only -- but also could be split into multiple partitions. The latter is mostly done for things like App2SD+ or Link2SD, which provide extended features for moving apps, data and caches from the internal storage to sdcard.

For more details on partitions, you might want to visit Wikipedia.

Further Readings

379 questions
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How can I view the Android internal partition table?

I've rooted my device, put it in recovery mode, and have linked it to PC by adb shell. How can I view the list of storage devices and partitions? Note: fdisk doesn't work.
lovespring
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SD card partitioning? why? how?

I am going to install cm7 and it seems to me that is 'good' to partition my SD card. I did some reading but I am not sure if ext partition will become accessible as mass storage when an Android phone is connected to the computer. I still want to…
Radek
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Resize /system partition of Galaxy S 2

I need to increase the size of my Galaxy S 2's /system partition from 503.4MB to... Well, anything possible. The (main) reason why I want to do this is because I want to install GApps 20140606, which is not compatible with devices with small (under…
Bruno Finger
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Why is there no option to choose size in TWRP's resize partition feature?

I'm trying to reflash an old Galaxy Note N5100 but I realized that the system partition is too big (~1.5GB). The current ROM uses only about 40% of the partition so I want to shrink it to make space for cache and data. I heard that newer TWRP has…
phuclv
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Why are superuser permissions needed to acess /data partition?

The default account is normal user, and I used it to install Google Play Store APK (to /data). Then Google Play Store was opened using my current user's permissions, and it is used to download and install other APKs to /data. That means I have full…
Livy
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How to list all major partitions with their labels?

I want to figure out all partitions on my device together with their resp. mount points or labels (i.e. to know which partition is holding system, recovery, boot, etc.). This needs to be device independent (as I have multiple devices). Goal is to dd…
Izzy
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What is a vbmeta partition?

One of the optional steps of the Magisk installation steps says, (Optional) If your device has a separate vbmeta partition, you can patch the vbmeta partition with command: fastboot flash vbmeta --disable-verity --disable-verification…
Evan Carroll
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Do most Android device use GPT as their partitioning scheme?

There is much talk of Android partitions that can be found with Google. Sometimes I can find references to GPT in documentation for mobile processors or on XDA Developers (where I have learned that certain devices do use GPT as their scheme). Aside…
Melab
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Resizing the /data partition (rooted)

My app market (Google Play) has a problem. I can't install any apps on my phone (Lenovo, rooted) because of "There isn't enough space in the disk", but actually there is. After asking a friend, I moved apps to the SD card. After more tries, I…
Yagel
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How to find the pathname of the swap partition on SD card?

As this warns, you should not enable swap on the wrong partition or you can destroy your phone: OK before we go any further! previous phones had a partition layout where mmcblck0 was the SDcard (external) our phone uses mmcblck1 for the external…
endolith
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Do I need to wipe anything before restoring a full nandroid backup?

I'm used to wiping everything when installing a new ROM, but I would like to know if a nandroid restore automatically wipes out the partitions it is recovering. When I run a restore, I see some messages saying it is "formatting cache" and "erasing…
Stephen S
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Inconsistent UIDS and wiping a data partition

I've inherited my wife's Android phone (GT540) when she got a newer, shining one :-) We think to have factory reset it (via the privacy option), and in fact it has finally stopped to refer to her account and all the pics are gone. But I keep…
Francesco
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How to restore damaged Internal SD card partition layout? Tried everything

I have Samsung S 3 mini. I did something really bad to my INTERNAL SD CARD partition layout. As I remember correctly, I tried to repartition my External SD card via fdisk right on Android via 'adb shell'. And I delete existed (there was only one as…
Aleksandr Motsjonov
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What is system partition? How its size is fixed? Can it be resized?

I have rooted LG P500 (Optimus One) running stock 2.3.3. I recently updated to unofficial CM10 (Android 4.1) and observed few serious issues. I observed that Google's My Location service was not working. Many apps like My tracks, Endomondo etc which…
Narayanan
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Purpose of the "persist" partition

There are a lot of posts on the internet on how to fix or restore, but not many about what it is for or what is stored on it. What gets stored on it? Does the SIM unlock code go there? Or are values related to cellular functionality stored there…
Melab
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