When EFI partition is missing, you won’t be able to boot the OS. So, how to create or recover EFI partition on Windows 11 is what we’re going to discuss. In this post, several effective ways are given to help perform the 2 kinds of operations.
“Help. My Windows 11 laptop can’t boot ever since I upgraded the OS this morning. I have tried to figure out the cause and finally, I found it was because the EFI partition was accidentally deleted. I know the partition is necessary if I want to boot Windows 11. However, I’m a computing novice and don’t know any possible solution. Can anybody help me?”
EFI, short for (Extensible Firmware Interface) system partition is necessary for OS booting. EFI system partition is generally formatted with FAT32 and around 100MB, containing essential files and utilities such as boot loaders, device drivers, data files, system utilities, and BitLocker data. Only Windows devices using the UEFI BIOS will have the EFI partition. A Windows system without UEFI BIOS includes those boot info in the primary partition.
When we boot a PC, the OS doesn’t start right then. However, BIOS will start first and wake up the hardware and firmware. Then, the BIOS looks for the EFI partition to get instructions on starting and interacting with Windows.
Normally, File Explorer doesn’t display the EFI partition. To see it, you need to open Disk Management. Just right-click on “This PC” on the desktop, select “Manage”, and click on “Disk Management” under the “Storage” tab. Then, on the right side, below “Status”, you’ll notice “EFI System Partiton”.
As we already know, missing the EFI partition will stop us to boot Windows 11. In this case, you need to either recover the EFI partition manually or resort to a more powerful third-party software utility.
DiskPart is a command-line utility that provides to manage hard disks and partitions for your PC. With DiskPart, you can perform different operations including disk formatting, disk partitioning, and disk deletion by inputting command lines. But this time, we’ll learn to use DiskPart to recover EFI system partition on Windows 11.
1. In the search box, type “command prompt” and select the result “Run as administrator” to run the utility.
2. In the Command Prompt window, type “bootrec/fixmbr” to repair MBR in case it has been corrupted or damaged. After that, hit “ENTER” to proceed.
3. Now, you need to input the following commands and hit “ENTER” after each.
“bootrec/fixboot”
“bootrec/rebuildbcd”
4. Now, you can reboot your computer and check whether the EFI system partition is recovered on Windows 11.
DiskPart is indeed a functional tool for professional users. However, for average people or even computing novices, remembering complex command lines could be a headache. So, it becomes imperative to find another alternative for EFI partition recovery.
AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, the most powerful third-party disk manager, should be your best choice. With the help of it, you can recover any partitions including the EFI system partition. More than partition recovery, features like data recovery and MBR rebuilding are also included. This software can be applied to Windows 11/10/8/7 and XP.
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. If you can’t boot your PC, you need to prepare a bootable media by using a normal PC and then, boot into the software on the problematic PC. Click "Tools"> "Make Bootable Media".
Step 2. On the main interface of the software, select “Partition Recovery Wizard” under Wizards. Then, select the hard disk where the EFI system partition is missing.
Step 3. On the next page, you need to select a search method. Choose “Fast Search” first. If it doesn’t work, then, run “Full Search”.
Step 4. Select the missing EFI system partition in the list that just appeared and hit “Proceed”.
If you fail to recovery the EFI partition, then, you have to manually create one and install EFI boot loader to make the OS bootable again.
1. Boot your PC from a Windows installation disc or recovery disk. Hit “Shift + F10” simultaneously to enter Command Prompt.
2. Input the command lines below to shrink a partition to get unallocated space.
diskpart;
list disk;
select disk x; (x represents the sequence number o the disk where an EFI partition is required)
list partition;
select partition n; (n represent the sequence number of the partition to be shrinked)
shrink desired=500; (shrink the partition by 500MB)
3. Now, you can create an EFI system partition by using the unallocated space with the command lines below.
create partition efi size=200;
format quick fs=fat32 label=”system”;
create partition msr size=1128;
4. Once the 2 partitions are created, use the commands below to install bootloader and other necessary apps.
bootrec/fixboot;
bcdboot c:\Windows /s b: /f all
5. Reboot your PC to check whether the issue of EFI partition Windows 11 missing is resolved.
How to create recover EFI partition on Windows 11 when the OS can’t boot? In this post, there’re 2 practical tools – DiskPart and AOMEI Partition Assistant – provided to help with the creation and recovery. In partition recovery, both of them are good tools but DiskPart is actually designed for professional users. So, if you’re not a computing expert, you’re recommended to try the AOMEI software. Plus, if you want to use the software on Servers, please try the Server edition.