Block mapping systems and methods for storage device

A method of operating a storage device, comprising:

• providing a plurality of physical erase blocks (EBs), each physical EB including a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells erasable as a block, the EBs physically configured into a first area and a second area;
• and
• by operation of a memory mapping module of the storage device,
• scanning only the first area for a second system EB, the second EB being restricted to the first area,
• locating first system EBs using metadata, including physical addresses for the system EBs from the second system EB,
• locating data EBs using system data from the first system EBs to make user data stored in the storage device available to a user;
• wherein
• the first system EBs and data EBs can be located within or outside of the first area, and
• the first system EBs do not store user data from the user.

A system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor by a communication infrastructure;
• at least one storage device coupled to the communication infrastructure and including a plurality of physical erase blocks (EB) that each include nonvolatile memory cells configured to be erased together, the physical EBs physically configured into an overlay region and a non-overlay region, and including
• a plurality of data EBs configured to store data from a user,
• first system EBs configured to store system management information for the data EBs and not store data from the user, and
• at least one second system EB configured to store metadata for locating the first system EBs including physical addresses for the first system EBs;
• wherein
• the at least one second system EB is restricted to the overlay region, and
• the data EBs and first system EBs are not restricted to the overlay region and
• a memory mapping module configured to, in a predetermined operation;
• scan only the overlay region for the second system EB,
• locate the first system EBs using metadata from the at least one second system EB, and
• locate data EBs using system data from the first system EBs to make data stored in the storage device available to a user of the system.