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fat16/32 are the only recognized file system formats of EFI system partitions in the UEFI firmware standard. If they are patent encumbered, that is worse than
by zanny 13y ago
fat16/32 are the only recognized file system formats of EFI system partitions in the UEFI firmware standard.
If they are patent encumbered, that is worse than the secure boot nonsense. It would mean you can't format a drive for booting on a system using UEFI firmware unless you had windows software to create and write into that partition.
- pgeorgi 13y agoThe patents cover long file names (which are embedded in the directory using "illegal" directory entries). UEFI users (as in: OS installer) could restrain themselves to FAT16 with 8.3 names (FAT16 since the boot partition is usually tiny), and I haven't seen any longer file names yet.
- zanny 13y agoOne thing to note is Windows 7 won't recognize a FAT16 formatted UEFI partition, but Windows 8 works fine. I use fat16 for my uefi partitions because I only ever add in memtest and Arch. Good job MS!