How to Dump Android Device Bootloader

Since it is one of the most important partitions of any Android device, you may be required to dump your Android device bootloader either for repair, backup or diagnostic purposes.

Here, I discuss the step by step guides involved in dumping your Android device bootloader. You can dump your Android device bootloader using either Linux, Windows or Mac machine, this tutorial focuses Windows PC users.

To Dump your Android Device Bootloader

1. Root your Android device. Depending on your Android device make, appropriate root method differs from device to device. You can research the appropriate method for your device.
2. Download and insttall all fastboot and ADB Tools drivers for your specific device on your PC. You can download all Android device drivers here.
3. Setup ADB Tools folder on your PC. You may also download and unzip minimalADB on your PC once and for all. 4. On your PC, open the ADB Tools folder then, open CMD (Windows Command Prompt) in that folder. To do this, in that folder, press and hold the Shift Key and Right-click at the same time. From the options that shows, click "Open Cammand Prompt here".
5. From the Command Prompt Window, type:

[ adb shell]

then press enter key.

If you see the command prompt change from displaying the ADB binary directory to showing the codename for your Android device, then you’ve successfully entered your device’s local command line shell.

6. Now, in order to access the root partitions and dump the device Bootloader, you will need superuser access. To do so, type:

[su]

then press enter key.
The symbol in front of your device’s codename should now change from $ to #. This simply indicates that you can now run commands with elevated privileges.

NOTE: Accept and grant the root access to the PC Shell if the prompt appears on your device.

7. In order that we may identify the device bootloader actual directory, we need to list the entire partitions table using these command lines:

[cd /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name ls -all]

type the command lines above on CMD Window and press enter key.

8. From the list that appears, locate the partition with the name aboot which is your device bootloader and note down its path/address. We will require the path to dump the device bootloader in the next step.
9. Now, to dump your Android device Bootloader type:

[dd if=/dev/block/{YOUR ABOOT PARTITION} of=/sdcard/aboot.bin]

then press the enter key.
Once successful, you should find a file named "aboot.bin" located in the root of your Android device internal storage.

And by this, you have successfully dumped your Android device Bootloader. You may now save, share or use it for whichever purpose you intended.

In some Android devices, /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name and aboot may differ.
If you encounter any errors, please contained a detailed comment in the box below and I shall attend to your comment and help.