


Why does the second FAT partition need to be created? Because most UEFI computers will not boot in UEFI mode from an NTFS partition and need a FAT partition to boot from.Īnd what does UEFI:NTFS do exactly? It creates a small FAT partition for the UEFI firmware to boot from: This achieves the exact same outcome as if the UEFI firmware had native support for NTFS and could boot straight from it. UEFI:NTFS then loads the relevant NTFS UEFI driver, locates the existing NTFS partition on the same media, and executes the /efi/boot/bootia32.efi, /efi/boot/boot圆4.efi, /efi/boot/bootarm.efi or /efi/boot/bootaa64.efi that resides there. When the USB drive boots in UEFI mode, the first NTFS partition gets ignored by the UEFI firmware (unless that firmware already includes an NTFS driver, in which case 2 boot options will be available, that perform the same thing) and the UEFI:NTFS bootloader from the bootable FAT partition is executed.

The first one is an NTFS partition occupying almost all the drive, that contains the Windows files (for Windows To Go, or for regular installation), and the second is a very small FAT partition, located at the very end, that contains an NTFS UEFI driver (see Free Software EFI Drivers) as well as the UEFI:NTFS bootloader. Rufus creates 2 partitions on the target USB disk (these can be MBR or GPT partitions). The way UEFI:NTFS works, in conjunction with Rufus, is as follows:
