Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

what is "efi boot" ??

Something has happened where now if I hold down the Option key when I boot, rather than showing me all my bootable options by name as it used to do, it now shows all bootable options by the same name,
"efi boot"...

I clone my hard drive now and then and after doing so I always like to boot with the clone just to see that it is bootable... Always before it has shown both my main drive, by name and icon, and the cloned drive, also by its name and icon. Now, it still shows them with their specific icons but the real drive names are not presented and instead the system calls them both "efi boot"...

What has happened and can I fix this issue???

any help would be appreciated... thanks... bob...

Two 17 inch MacBook Pros and a FW800 G4 dual 1.25 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 24, 2010 1:14 PM

Reply
7 replies

Aug 24, 2010 2:09 PM in response to Robert Paris

How exactly do you make these clones and are all of these 'bootable options' made by cloning?

Some cloning software does not set the permissions on the destination drive properly, while other cloning software does not require you to erase the destination drive first, and still other cloning software may not provide a valid disk name. This can result in the clones getting a generic name, 'efi boot.' All it means is that the volume is a proper startup volume. 'EFI' means 'Extensible Firmware Interface' which is the type of firmware interface used in Intel Mac boot ROMs.

User KJK555 offers the following fix:

To fix:
Open Terminal.app,
at the prompt type:
sudo bless --folder /System/Library/Coreservices --bootefi
(press return, enter your admin password, press return again)


I do not know if you must first boot from each drive in order to apply the fix to that drive or if there is another way, but I'm sure that if you first boot from each drive and apply the fix then the problem should be solved ...... I think.

Aug 24, 2010 2:21 PM in response to Robert Paris

You use and ran Disk Warrior?

http://www.google.com/search?q=AlsoftDisk+Warrior+EFIBoot

It is cosmetic. Has existed for years. Not a problem. First saw it back in 10.5.0 if not earlier and thought it was TechTool Pro 4.x issue (the first time I saw that my Intel Mac Pro has GPT and EFI partitions).

So there are hidden partitions. And the boot manager shows EFI (which are 128MB and probably the 'actual' boot loader is there but that is pure guess-speculation).

Google turns up excellent threads
(my way of saying most things already or may exist and worth a read).

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10300455

The solution is to simply select the startup disk you want via the

System Preferences Pane."

Open Terminal.app, at the prompt type:


sudo bless --folder /System/Library/Coreservices --bootefi

(press return, enter your admin password, press return again)

The startup disk name should now equal the volume name. And yes, this happens every time you rebuild the directory with DW,


http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10290097

Aug 24, 2010 2:43 PM in response to The hatter

Let's see... As for the cloning software I use Super Duper... I've used it for a few years now and only today saw this EFI boot for the first time... In fact, it is right after I clone the drive that I then reboot, hold down the Option key to see (hopefully) two bootable drives, my main drive and the clone.. It is then my habit to choose the clone, boot from it and then run Disk Warrior to check and rebuild the directory on both drives. I first always boot from the main drive and then rebuild the clone drive... Then I use the Option key to boot from the clone and reverse the process... When I did that today did I for the first time ever see both drives called "efi boot"...

I did, however, fix it (apparently)... I booted several times and the issue persisted... But then I went into System Preferences and explicitly chose the main drive as the normal boot drive... Actually, that was the one already chosen but I clicked to the clone, then right back to the main drive and then said OK... I then rebooted and the normal names were once again restored...

So, perhaps that's the same as going into terminal and choosing to "bless" a certain drive?? I don't know... I'm just guessing??? Anyway, for now at least, my drives are once again properly named under an Option boot...

thanks... bob...

Aug 24, 2010 3:07 PM in response to Robert Paris

Chossing the drive in Startup Disk preferences and rebooting is basically doing the same thing as blessing the system which is what the Terminal procedure does but without having to take nearly as long.

As for cloning I recommend using the Restore option in Disk Utility. Apple seems to know best how to clone their system. Other cloning software tries to back-engineer what Apple does and most do it differently from one another. I trust Apple to know the best method for cloning OS X. Furthermore, there have been numerous OS X updates that have broken many backup utilities including SuperDuper!. I have no trouble after creating the clone with using other backup software to perform incremental updates of the clone for which you can use SuperDuper! If you want somewhat faster backups consider Synk or Synchronize! Pro X, both of which implement a fast scanning process that can make subsequent incremental updates much faster by reducing the time to rescan the source and destination drives. This is not a feature provided in SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.

BTW, I think your immediate reply was meant for me rather than The Hatter because it appeared you were answering my questions from my first reply.

Aug 24, 2010 3:30 PM in response to Kappy

So are you saying that the Restore feature of Disk Utility can be used to create complete clones but that you must then use something like SuperDuper or CCC if you want to do incremental updates to the clone??? To say it differently, does Restore ONLY do full clones and won't do incremental updates???

I've never looked into using Restore before... Nor am I familiar with Synk or Synchronize! Pro but I will check them out...

thanks... bob...

Aug 24, 2010 8:33 PM in response to Robert Paris

FWIW, I have never had any problems like this using SuperDuper! In fact, I use SuperDuper! because unlike Disk Utility's restore option or Carbon Copy Cloner, it does not use asr, which does block copies when possible. (See the "HOW TO GET THE FASTEST RESTORES" section of the asr link for more about this.)

Block copies are faster that file copies, but will preserve directory errors if they exist & do not perform any defragmentation or directory optimization, since they do block by block copies without going into the file system. File copies are slower, but because they go thorough the file system, they halt with an error if there are directory errors, & when used for cloning will automatically perform file & disk defragmentation because the files are written sequentially. (This is not true for incremental updates like SuperDuper!'s "Smart Update" feature.)

For this reason, if you use SuperDuper! you are unlikely to get any benefit by using Disk Warrior on a freshly made clone. The same would probably be true if you used a cloning utility that used asr to do file copies, but it could be beneficial if they did block copies.

Assuming the renaming issue is related to Disk Warrior, as suggested by The hatter, this may help you avoid it if you continue to use SuperDuper!. Of course, whatever you use, make sure you have the latest version(s) & that they are fully compatible with Snow Leopard.

what is "efi boot" ??

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.