Big Sur 11.2 has EFI Bootloader and Windows MBR which I can't delete
I'm running Big Sur 11.2 on my 14,4 iMac and there is a 209.7MB partition at the start of the disk, which was formatted when I did the install from a USB created by downloading 11.2 from the App Store. When the partition is loaded it only has 23.04kb on it. Any USB drives which are formatted by the computer never fully format, and all contain the same size EFI partition.
I tried to clean install from USB, but it would boot from the USB and also from an internet recovery disk that was not ejectable. Some of the install options are missing and some of the terminal commands will not work when using this recovery mode.
/EFI/APPLE/CACHES/CAFEBEEF is the only folder structure on it, and the only file is BOOTLOG.EXE
When the BOOTLOG.EXE is run this is what it does:
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 1: SlingShot:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 2: Disassociating: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 3: Booting: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 4: SlingShot:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 5: Disassociating: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 6: Booting: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 7: SlingShot:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 8: Disassociating: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 9: Booting: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 10: SlingShot:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 11: Disassociating: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 12: Booting: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 13: SlingShot:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 14: NetworkFinishOSRSHostInfoLookup:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 15: GetStationAddressViaIpAgent:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 16: GetStationAddressViaIpAgent:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 17: GetStationAddressViaIpAgent:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 18: GetStationAddressViaIpAgent:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 19: GetStationAddressViaIpAgent:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 20: NetworkFinishOSRSHostInfoLookup:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 21: NetworkFinishOSRSHostInfoLookup:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 22: NetworkFinishOSRSHostInfoLookup:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 23: SlingShot:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 24: SlingShotSetupAuthParams:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 25: NetworkResolveDomainName:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 26: DownloadChunkedAsset:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 27: NetworkResolveDomainName:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 28: SlingShotUpdateProgressUI:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 29: SlingShotUpdateProgressUI:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 30: SlingShotUpdateProgressUI:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 31: SlingShotUpdateProgressUI:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 32: SlingShotUpdateProgressUI:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 33: SlingShotUpdateProgressUI:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 34: SlingShotUpdateProgressUI:: command not found
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 35: syntax error near unexpected token `>>'
/Volumes/EFI/BOOTLOG: line 35: `>>>>>>: [0:07] to go, Remaining in Sec = 396, Ho'rs = 0, Minutes = 7, Bytes Left = 616094933
Is this normal? I've been having many issues with the computer that a format or clean install just won't fix. DarwinDumper shows the right version of Big Sur that I am running, but calls it an unknown OS. If anyone wants to take a look at the DarwinDumper file I have the zip file. Here is some of the text from the kernel bootlogger.
Also a snapshot of the drive shows a Windows loader MBR, but I never installed Boot Camp or tried to load windows.
I booted the drive in GPARTED live, and in single user mode, but both of those did not help as the boot drive was not writeable and I was unable to see the Windows loader to be able to remove it, but I was able to delete a copy of windows from booting using the alt key.
If anyone could please help me try to get rid of the all the data on the drive and be able to boot from USB without loading the unejectable internet recovery disk, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you.