LEARN ABOUT ROM, ITS PARTITIONS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

LEARN MORE ABOUT ROM WITH ITS PARTITIONS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

ROM:

Android ROM (Android Read Only Memory) A file containing the executable instructions (a system image) of an Android OS and affiliated apps. The "stock ROM" comes installed on the phone or tablet, while a "custom ROM" comes from a third party. The custom ROM is either a uniquely modified OS, such as Cyanogen, or a stock version made available for older devices or for new devices before the vendor release date. See CyanogenMod. The ROM contain different partitions that support the whole functioning of android of phone OS. The partitions are like those described below:-,

/boot

This is the partition that enables the phone to boot, as the name suggests. It includes the kernel and the ramdisk. Without this partition, the device will simply not be able to boot. Wiping this partition from recovery should only be done if absolutely required and once done, the device must NOT be rebooted before installing a new one, which can be done by installing a ROM that includes a /boot partition.

/system

This partition basically contains the entire operating system, other than the kernel and the ramdisk. This includes the Android user interface as well as all the system applications that come pre-installed on the device. Wiping this partition will remove Android from the device without rendering it unbootable, and you will still be able to put the phone into recovery or bootloader mode to install a new ROM.

/recovery

The recovery partition can be considered as an alternative boot partition that lets you boot the device into a recovery console for performing advanced recovery and maintenance operations on it. To learn more about this partition and its contents.

/data

Also called userdata, the data partition contains the user’s data – this is where your contacts, messages, settings and apps that you have installed go. Wiping this partition essentially performs a factory reset on your device, restoring it to the way it was when you first booted it, or the way it was after the last official or custom ROM installation. When you perform a wipe data/factory reset from recovery, it is this partition that you are wiping.

/cache

This is the partition where Android stores frequently accessed data and app components. Wiping the cache doesn’t effect your personal data but simply gets rid of the existing data there, which gets automatically rebuilt as you continue using the device.

/misc

This partition contains miscellaneous system settings in form of on/off switches. These settings may include CID (Carrier or Region ID), USB configuration and certain hardware settings etc. This is an important partition and if it is corrupt or missing, several of the device’s features will will not function normally.

The partitions can be increased or decreased in number depending to the nature of ROM of the phone model and cheapsets. For example, the looking of mediatek ROM's partitions of samsung differ with the looking of Qualcomm ROM's partitions of the same company of samsung

Flashing the ROM

Flashing a ROM means installing the system image into the device's internal flash memory. Flash memory holds the Android's firmware, the same as most other portable devices with an embedded OS.