GPT utility can brick laptops?


Question

Which utility is Android-x86 using for partitions? Is it gdisk? The prompt is to use GPT. What are the risks with regards to formatting a disk with this tool, and installing Android-x86? Under which circumstances can this result in bricking a laptop? Deleting partitions will result in bricking the laptop??



GPT seems to operate a bit differently from the last time I formatted a HD by hand, which involved the MBR. (There's no data on the hdd.)



The official documentation glosses over the install process with sentences like "if you are lucky" so it's a bit unclear.


Answer

We all know that the matter concerning bricking a device is complex and often confusing, so let's make some clearance.


Meaning of bricking


Bricking, if considered literally, means "to have a device so unusable it could be a brick". This, on mobile devices, is an umbrella term for two different things:



  • soft brick: as a result of flashing or alternatively installing incompatible software, your device gets messed up. This can produce behaviours such as bootloops, but can generally be solved by flashing a new firmware, or restoring a working Nandroid backup (if any);



  • hard brick: this is the "bad" kind of brick. You messed up a component known as the bootloader, and now the device doesn't even know how to turn itself on.




Since all of the partitions on a mobile device are contained within the same physical medium (internal storage), in this case messing up with its partitions can lead to hard bricks.


On PCs and laptops


Those devices are physically different from mobile ones... yes, even inside. Their core software component, which does a job similar to the mobile bootloader, is called the BIOS (on old devices), or the UEFI (on newer devices).


This is what sends the signal that pings all of the hardware connected with a computer, and therefore the most important part. As such, it's contained within a small memory that's entirely dedicated to it. This memory was previously called ROM (Read-Only Memory), even if we now have EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM). As you may guess, the only way to make a computer totally unusable would be to overwrite the content of this chip, for example when updating the BIOS.




So, can I brick my computer by altering the partition table?


No, you can't. All of your changes only affect the Hard Disk or Solid State Disk in question, so they may mess up your current operating system, but that's nothing that can't be fixed by simply reinstalling it.


Topics


2D Engines   3D Engines   9-Patch   Action Bars   Activities   ADB   Advertisements   Analytics   Animations   ANR   AOP   API   APK   APT   Architecture   Audio   Autocomplete   Background Processing   Backward Compatibility   Badges   Bar Codes   Benchmarking   Bitmaps   Bluetooth   Blur Effects   Bread Crumbs   BRMS   Browser Extensions   Build Systems   Bundles   Buttons   Caching   Camera   Canvas   Cards   Carousels   Changelog   Checkboxes   Cloud Storages   Color Analysis   Color Pickers   Colors   Comet/Push   Compass Sensors   Conferences   Content Providers   Continuous Integration   Crash Reports   Credit Cards   Credits   CSV   Curl/Flip   Data Binding   Data Generators   Data Structures   Database   Database Browsers   Date &   Debugging   Decompilers   Deep Links   Dependency Injections   Design   Design Patterns   Dex   Dialogs   Distributed Computing   Distribution Platforms   Download Managers   Drawables   Emoji   Emulators   EPUB   Equalizers &   Event Buses   Exception Handling   Face Recognition   Feedback &   File System   File/Directory   Fingerprint   Floating Action   Fonts   Forms   Fragments   FRP   FSM   Functional Programming   Gamepads   Games   Geocaching   Gestures   GIF   Glow Pad   Gradle Plugins   Graphics   Grid Views   Highlighting   HTML   HTTP Mocking   Icons   IDE   IDE Plugins   Image Croppers   Image Loaders   Image Pickers   Image Processing   Image Views   Instrumentation   Intents   Job Schedulers   JSON   Keyboard   Kotlin   Layouts   Library Demos   List View   List Views   Localization   Location   Lock Patterns   Logcat   Logging   Mails   Maps   Markdown   Mathematics   Maven Plugins   MBaaS   Media   Menus   Messaging   MIME   Mobile Web   Native Image   Navigation   NDK   Networking   NFC   NoSQL   Number Pickers   OAuth   Object Mocking   OCR Engines   OpenGL   ORM   Other Pickers   Parallax List   Parcelables   Particle Systems   Password Inputs   PDF   Permissions   Physics Engines   Platforms   Plugin Frameworks   Preferences   Progress Indicators   ProGuard   Properties   Protocol Buffer   Pull To   Purchases   Push/Pull   QR Codes   Quick Return   Radio Buttons   Range Bars   Ratings   Recycler Views   Resources   REST   Ripple Effects   RSS   Screenshots   Scripting   Scroll Views   SDK   Search Inputs   Security   Sensors   Services   Showcase Views   Signatures   Sliding Panels   Snackbars   SOAP   Social Networks   Spannable   Spinners   Splash Screens   SSH   Static Analysis   Status Bars   Styling   SVG   System   Tags   Task Managers   TDD &   Template Engines   Testing   Testing Tools   Text Formatting   Text Views   Text Watchers   Text-to   Toasts   Toolkits For   Tools   Tooltips   Trainings   TV   Twitter   Updaters   USB   User Stories   Utils   Validation   Video   View Adapters   View Pagers   Views   Watch Face   Wearable Data   Wearables   Weather   Web Tools   Web Views   WebRTC   WebSockets   Wheel Widgets   Wi-Fi   Widgets   Windows   Wizards   XML   XMPP   YAML   ZIP Codes