I'm trying to migrate my system to a SSD, and there's this 512mb EFI partition that's giving me trouble. Is this thing a leftover from Windows 8? Does Ubuntu need it to function properly? I'm not using dual boot.
Does Ubuntu Need an EFI Partition?
bootpartitioninguefi
Related Solutions
In my opinion the best course of action would be to:
- Take back up of all your data using Ubuntu.
- Delete all partitions on Disk 0 (the one with Windows installed).
- Install any of Ubuntu/Windows. They will create the required partitions themselves. (Preferably Windows
In case you want to try and salvage (that seems more difficult now) read on.
Try this first:
gdisk t 2 EFOO
gdisk t 4 0700
Then follow only the Steps 1, 2 and 3 below (DO NOT DO 4). Reboot to see if it works.
IF NOT, then proceed to the below instructions.
The 300MB SYSTEM partition is most likely (99.99%) the EFI partition. You don't need gparted for the operations we need.
Just boot into Ubuntu and run these:
Find you EFI partition's name
sudo fdisk -lThe EFI partition will be the one with size as 300MB as you have mentioned. Note it's name (/dev/sda2 most likely)
Mount the EFI partition
sudo mkdir /mnt/efipart sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/efipartCopy the EFI directory to the partition from your windows install media. First find the name for your Windows install media using
fdiskas in step 1. Let us assume it is /dev/sdc1sudo cp -R /dev/sdc1/efi/* /mnt/efipart/EFI/Set the EFI partition flags.
gdisk t 2 EFOO
BTW: Looking again at the partition table you just showed, it seems that this may not work (but is still worth a try).
In case this doesn't work, you will have to repartition the disk (start over from scratch) See these in case:
https://superuser.com/questions/764799/how-to-create-an-efi-system-partition
How do I create an EFI partition
No.
In fact, I created one (green arrow), and the installer ignored it, and used the existing Windows one (red arrow).
Best Answer
Yes, Ubuntu needs that EFI partition. UEFI is a (relatively) new method of booting for operating systems, and is much more featured than legacy/BIOS boot. Look it up for some more details.
If you don't copy it over, you aren't going to be able to boot, as it stores the bootloader files for OSes that support EFI. There may be Windows stuff left over, but there's also almost definitely GRUB files in there as well.