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Any macOS installer contains a folder (e.g. called EFIPayloads) with EFI firmware files named MP61_0116_B17_LOCKED.scap, MBP114_0172_B09_LOCKED.fd or similarly.

How does one create a working EFI partition from those?

What I do know already:

  1. The EFI partition requires particular values in the GPT.

  2. An EFI partition is a FAT32 volume with a folder structure like this:

    EFI
        APPLE
            EXTENSIONS
                Firmware.scap                  (always there)
            FIRMWARE                           (optional)
                EfiUpdaterApp2.efi
                MP51_0087_00B_LOCKED.fd
    

What I do not understand:

  • Which files do I take from the macOS Installer, and where do I place them in the EFI volume? E.g, do I use the .scap file matching the Mac model and rename that to Firmware.scap, whereas a model-matching .fd file (which may be optional) then goes into the FIRMWARE folder?

  • Is EfiUpdaterApp2.efi needed to run the firmware, or is that only a leftover from an older firmware update process and can be removed?

  • Can I create a universal EFI boot partition, containing the firmware for any Mac model, so that I can put that onto an external disk and boot practically any Mac from it for which I've included its .fd or .scap file?

Update

This answer suggests that the files in the FIRMWARE folder are not loaded when booting the system but are rather just used to flash the ROM. So, if the particular Mac had already installed the particular file into its Flash ROM once, it won't be needed any more and can be removed from the EFI partition.

I also did a test where I renamed the top "EFI" folder to "EFI-OFF" and rebooted a MacBook Air 2015. This resulted in a new EFI folder being created in the EFI partition with the same Firmware.scap file. This suggests that neiter files need to be present at boot time at all, at least on recent Macs. Meaning there's no need to create a bootoable EFI partition at all. I wonder if it still may contain additional support for Macs whose boot ROMs can't be updated, such as adding support to boot from APFS volumes, perhaps.

Background:

Recently, a friend got his EFI boot partition overwritten, whereas his main Mac boot partition had remained intact. Without this EFI partition, the Mac would not boot any more.

I then tried to repair the damage by copying my Mac's EFI partition to his Mac, using iBored (which I wrote myself, so I know what I was doing, trust me on that).

But that did not help - the Mac would still not boot.

After a while I figured that his rather old Mac (a MacBook Pro early-2009) probably required a different EFI firmware than the other Mac from which we tried copying the EFI firmware.

After some digging I found the mentioned .fd and .scap files in a macOS installer, which appears to prove my theory. Hence I would now like to get some more information on how this all fits together.

1 Answer 1

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macOS will boot fine without an EFI partition. Unlike most operating systems, macOS stores its boot files inside the OS partition. Apple computers ship with firmware that can read HFS+ partitions (2016 and later models can read APFS volumes as well by default), so they can read the boot.efi file from the partition. When you upgrade your computer to High Sierra, the firmware gets upgraded as well, getting the ability to boot from APFS partitions.

Your friend probably did more than just overwriting the EFI partition. You will probably need to backup your data and reinstall macOS.

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  • The friend's Mac did boot fine when attaching the Mac via Disk Target Mode to another Mac, and starting up from that Mac, with the option key down, and then selecting the "bad" Mac's system volume. What else do you think could be broken if it's not the macOS volume and not the EFI partition, then? Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 10:23
  • After a bit of googling, I found that MacBook Pros between 2008-2009 might have a defect with the GPU. Did you try booting in safe mode?
    – user255044
    Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 10:29
  • You are right about not needing the files in the EFI partition: I just erased the EFI partition on my MacBook Air 2015. After that, does still boot. However, the friend's Mac was a 2009 model that had High Sierra installed. For that, I believe the EFI part contained the APFS support that the boot ROM lacks. Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 10:39
  • We did not even get that far, as even holding the Option key would not present any bootable choices. So, do you know anything about what the firmware files are for, generally? Why would even the MB Air 2015 have them, if they are not needed for booting? Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 10:40
  • I don't know how low level firmware updates are done, but I think reinstalling the OS can fix the issue. Reinstalling the OS doesn't erase the disk, it just reinstalls system files.
    – user255044
    Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 10:41

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