We investigate the relation between the small deviation problem for a symmetric α-stable random vector in a Banach space and the metric entropy properties of the operator generating it. This generalizes former results due to Li and Linde and to Aurzada. It is shown that this problem is related to the study of the entropy numbers of a certain random operator. In some cases, an interesting gap appears between the entropy of the original operator and that of the random operator generated by it. This phenomenon is studied thoroughly for diagonal operators. Basic ingredients here are techniques related to random partitions of the integers. The main result concerning metric entropy and small deviations allows us to determine or provide new estimates for the small deviation rate for several symmetric α-stable random processes, including unbounded Riemann-Liouville processes, weighted Riemann-Liouville processes and the (d-dimensional) α-stable sheet. This is an electronic reprint of the original article published by the ISI/BS in Bernoulli, 2009, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1305-1334. This reprint differs from the original in pagination and typographic detail. 1350-7265 c 2009 ISI/BS 1306 F. Aurzada, M. Lifshits and W. LindeIn this case, we say that X is generated by the operator u. This approach is very useful for investigating symmetric α-stable random processes with paths in E ′ . We refer to Section 5 of Li and Linde (2004) or Section 7.1.1 below for a discussion of how all natural examples of SαS processes fit into this framework. For example, if u from L p [0, 1] to L α [0, 1] is defined by (uf )(t) :=