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On Apple Mac computers using Intel x86-64 processor architecture, the EFI system partition is initially left blank and unused for booting into macOS. [13] [14]However, the EFI system partition is used as a staging area for firmware updates [15] and for the Microsoft Windows bootloader for Mac computers configured to boot into a Windows partition using Boot Camp.
It can be used to boot multiple operating systems, including triple-boot setups with software such as Apple's Boot Camp Assistant. It also provides a way to enter and explore the EFI pre-boot environment. [6] The name "rEFIt" is likely a play on the terms "refit" and "EFI". Development on "rEFIt" was abandoned by Christoph Pfisterer in 2010.
Target Disk Mode (sometimes referred to as TDM or Target Mode) is a boot mode unique to Macintosh computers. When a Mac that supports Target Disk Mode [1] is started with the 'T' key held down, its operating system does not boot. Instead, the Mac's firmware enables its drives to behave as a SCSI, FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB-C external mass ...
GNU-EFI and TianoCore are supported as main development platforms for writing binary UEFI applications in C to launch right from the rEFInd GUI menu. Typical purposes of an EFI application are fixing boot problems and programmatically modifying settings within UEFI environment, which would otherwise be performed from within the BIOS of a personal computer (PC) without UEFI.
Non-Macintosh systems, notably Windows and Linux, may not be typically booted in EFI mode and thus USB booting may be limited to supported hardware and software combinations that can easily be booted via EFI. [8] However, programs like Mac Linux USB Loader can alleviate the difficulties of the task of booting a Linux-live USB on a Mac.
The boot partition (or boot volume) [5] is the disk partition that contains the operating system folder, known as the system root or %systemroot% in Windows NT. [6]: 174 Before Windows 7, the system and boot partitions were, by default, the same and were given the "C:" drive letter.
In the UEFI Shell, the SmbiosView command can retrieve and display the SMBIOS data. [15] [16] One can often enter the UEFI shell by entering the system firmware settings, and then selecting the shell as a boot option (as opposed to a DVD drive or hard drive).
In the context of GPT on a BIOS-based computer, a BIOS boot partition is similar in some respects to the EFI system partition, which is used by systems based on EFI. The EFI System partition holds a filesystem and files used by the UEFI, while the BIOS boot partition is used in BIOS-based systems and accessed without a filesystem by holding raw ...