What is an EFI system partition?

Question

I just bought an external hard drive and it had an EFI system partition (bought used). It takes up 200mb and was wondering what an EFI partition does (in plain english as I do not know much computer vocabulary)? If the external hard drive is being used as storage purposes, can I remove the EFI partition without any consequences (I know how to remove the EFI)?

Answer 1

Your question "What is an EFI system partition?"

Did you create the partition scheme of this drive on a PC or on a Mac? The partition is used on UEFI architecture computers. UEFI (the old spec was EFI) is the new standard announced in 2005, and envisioned by Intel for all computers to replace the rapidly aging 1964 standard called "BIOS". It has been used by Apple since January 2006, but is generally ignored by PC makers who don't want to spend the money re-tooling their motherboards, and eliminate the possibility of installing old versions of Windows such as XP SP1 on their systems (due to so many people hanging onto XP after Vista's less than stellar debut). Windows recent versions (Server 2008, Vista, and 7) can be installed on UEFI systems. OS X version 10.4.4 and later can be installed on UEFI Mac systems.



The question you didn't ask:

"Can I delete it, and if so, how?"

See the link below.

Answer 2

Remove Efi System Partition

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

What is an EFI system partition?

I just bought an external hard drive and it had an EFI system partition (bought used). It takes up 200mb and was wondering what an EFI partition does (in plain english as I do not know much computer vocabulary)? If the external hard drive is being used as storage purposes, can I remove the EFI...

Answer 4

Delete Efi System Partition

Answer 5

Just delete it ,its external so it wont matter