Re: [gentoo-user] [SOLVED] fsck.fat 4.1 - File system couldn't be fixed [SOLVED]

[Thomas Mueller]

Excerpt from Michael:

> Right, on UEFI MoBos the ESP partition used by the UEFI firmware to locate and
> run *.EFI executables must be FAT32.  Such .EFI executables stored on the ESP
> may be OS boot managers/loaders, or other UEFI compatible applications.  The
> boot manager loaded by UEFI is then left to its own mechanisms (boot loader
> and fs drivers) to load whatever fs the kernel image resides on.

Is it necessary for the ESP to be FAT32, as opposed to FAT16 or FAT12?

What happens if the ESP is formatted FAT12 or FAT16?

In some cases, ESP might be small enough that FAT32 would not be appropriate, especially when there is only one OS installation on the disk.

That would be the case on many MS-Windows or Mac computers, and also other OSes when installed on a USB stick.

Tom