From 22a2fd360f5f0f8e7e522712a6187b1c6ac74ba7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Gareth Randall <gareth.randall@virgin.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2016 10:07:42 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 43/53] docs: Improve partition description in parted.texi

(cherry picked from commit e27ac8ff6706f67817f68246311899bd920b9c88)
---
 doc/parted.texi | 36 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/parted.texi b/doc/parted.texi
index 1b9c084..414179d 100644
--- a/doc/parted.texi
+++ b/doc/parted.texi
@@ -291,12 +291,38 @@ or you want to modify a root or boot partition, use GParted Live:
 @section Introduction to Partitioning
 @cindex partitioning overview
 
-Unfortunately, partitioning your disk is rather complicated.  This is
-because there are interactions between many different systems that need
-to be taken into consideration.
+Partitioning is the process of dividing a storage device into local
+sections, called partitions, which help organize multiple filesystems
+and their associated operating systems.
+
+A storage device presents itself as a sequence of bytes, numbered
+starting from zero and increasing until the maximum capacity of the
+device is reached. Bytes are normally read and written a sector at a
+time, rather than individually. Each sector contains a fixed number
+of bytes, with the number determined by the device.
+
+@example
++------------------------------------------------------------+
+|            storage device with no partitions               |
++------------------------------------------------------------+
+0 start                                                    end
+@end example
+
+In order to store multiple filesystems, a storage device can be divided
+up in to multiple partitions. Each partition can be thought of as an
+area which contains a real filesystem inside of it. To show where these
+partitions are on the device a small table is written at the start,
+shown as PT in the diagram below. This table is called a partition
+table, or disklabel, and also stores the type of each partition and
+some flags.
+
+@example
++--+---------------+----------------+------------------------+
+|PT|  Partition 1  |  Partition 2   |  Partition 3           |
++--+---------------+----------------+------------------------+
+0 start                                                    end
+@end example
 
-This manual used to introduce the reader to these systems and their
-working.  This content has moved to the GNU Storage Guide.
 
 @node Running Parted
 @section Using GNU Parted
-- 
2.7.4