Help Partitions and SD card

[Android Question]

HI all, I'm wondering if someone can help me get my head around android partitions. Do most Android phones have an internal memory and an SD card? I was reviewing all of the partitions in the article below and I'm a bit confused. I assumed that all of the partitions were on the internal SD card but article below suggests that all of the partitions are somewhere else and the SD card is just a storage area for docs, pics etc. If this is the case then why do you lose data when doing a factory restore?

http://techblogon.com/android-file-system-structure-architecture-layout-details/

Thanks.

 

[EarlyMon]

Yeah, the partitions aren't on your SD card, and the article is correct, including the expert tip to use df from adb shell - you can do that from Terminal Emulator btw.

Or, get these two useful apps and follow the post instructions to see your commonly accessed storage as well as all mounted partitions.

http://androidforums.com/threads/qu...e-is-your-storage-truth-read-me-first.906249/

Android apps require access to a path named /sdcard because that's the only way it was up through around 2010. Android itself doesn't care if you have an SD card or not.

Later, more internal storage was added, so it was called /sdcard even though it wasn't physically separate.

Later still, /sdcard and /data came to occupy mostly the same space thanks to a Linux file trick called FUSE, file systems in user space.

Anyway, the sd card, whether simulated internal or actual external, plays the supporting role for media storage and extra access.

It's not a central player as you've thought.