1. A method comprising: arranging a semiconductor array of resistive sense memory (RSM) cells into multi-cell blocks, each block having a physical block address (PBA); writing a first set of user data to a selected block at a first PBA; performing a partial block update operation by writing a second set of user data to a second block at a second PBA, the second set of user data updating a portion of the first set of user data in the first PBA; and reading the first and second blocks to retrieve the second set of user data and a remaining portion of the first set of user data.