How to Identify EFI or Boot Partition in Windows 10 | How do I find My EFI Partition Windows 10 & 11

On this video, I will show you how to identify the boot partition in windows 10 and how to differentiate between boot and Recovery partitions in both GPT and MBR systems.
Due to the similarity in sizes between the boot and recovery partitions, many users advance into further problem when they mistakenly selected and formatted the recovery partition in order to rebuild BCD file.

This video will help you to select the boot partition correctly, so you can fix start up or boot failure without errors.

For more and updated details, refer to this topic:

1. Boot into windows recovery environment.
See the following video to learn how to boot into Windows Recovery Environment:

2. Open command prompt.
3. Type DISKPART and hit Enter.
4. Type LIST DISK and hit Enter.
If you see this asterisk under GPT column, then your disk is GPT. If there is no asterisk, then your disk is MPR.
5. Type sel disk 0 to select disk that contains windows if you have more than one disk.
6. Type LIST VOL and hit Enter to show available volumes.
As you can see, I have 2 volumes with size less than 500 megabytes with no assigned letter for both, and boot and recovery partitions may have size of 500 megabytes or less and may or may not have an assigned letter. However, your PC may came with both partitions labelled with either Boot or recovery to help differentiating between them. Also in rare cases, your PC may came with assigned letter for one or both partitions.

Now to identify which one is the boot and which one is the Recovery partition, you have to assign a letter for one or both of small partitions in order to see their contents.
7. Select the partition that not have assigned letter using this command:
Sel vol x
(Replace the X with the volume number of partition without letter)
8. Type the following command to assign the letter to selected partition:
Assign letter=V:
9. You can assign any letter rather than V if there is no another volume have the sane letter.
10. If you have another partition without assigned letter, select it using Sel vol x command, then assign any letter using Assign letter=M command.
11. Type list vol again to see if the letters assigned successfully to the partitions or not.
12. After assigning the letters, type EXIT to close Diskpart.
13. Execute the following command to show files and folders inside V partition:
Dir /a /b /s V:
Note: If the windows recovery in your laptop disabled, you will not see the recovery partition among other partitions or volumes.

Now, lets confirm that the m partition is the boot.
14. Execute the following command:
Dir /a /b /s M:

As you can see, the M is the boot partition in my laptop because it contain the BCD files.

There is a difference between GPT and MPR systems in the name and path of BCD file as following:
In BIOS boot or MBR-based system, the boot manager called Bootmgr and its path is: System Drive\ Bootmgr.

15. To remove assigned letters for boot or recovery partitions do the followings:
16. Type DISKPART and hit Enter.
17. Type LIST VOL and hit Enter.
18. Select the recovery partition using this command:
Sel vol 2
(Replace the 2 with the number of recovery partition in your laptop)
19. Type this command to delete assigned letter:
REMOVE LETTER=V:

20. Select the recovery partition using this command:
Sel vol 4
21. Type this command to delete assigned letter:
REMOVE LETTER=M:

22. Execute LIST VOL command again to see if the assigned letters removed or not.
In my laptop, the assigned letters removed successfully.

How to Identify EFI or Boot Partition in Windows 10
How do I know my EFI partition?
How do I find my EFI partition Windows 10?
What is the EFI System Partition Windows 10?

[tun_ratapol]

Set playback speed at 0.75x if you think it too fast for you. Very helpful video btw. 👍

[shyflowerhuman]

You have "mixed up" the terminology of "boot" and "System" partition.Strictly as per Microsoft Windows terminology, "BOOT" partition is the one from where current Windows has booted from. That is, "Boot" partition is one that contains the "WINDOWS" folder.
What you have referred to as "boot" partition in your video is actually the "SYSTEM" partition, which is an "Active Primary" partition to which the PC boots to .
This "System" partition gets the name of "System Reserved" partition from Windows 7 onwards on MBR disks, while the same is known as "EFI SYSTEM PARTITION (ESP)" on GPT/UEFI systems. BCD is contained on ESP on GPT disks while "bootmgr" is contained on "System Reserved" partition on MBR disks.
Both the partitions are however, a separate partition dedicated to store the bootmanager and other boot files and both are NOT given any letter ( that is, are "Hidden" ).
However, while the "System Reserved" partition is formatted in NTFS, just like the "Windows Recovery" partition, the ESP partition on GPTdisks is ALWAYS formatted in FAT32.

[nikzahui]

nice video .. Would you make one to reorder the volume? I have o my C (OS) listed as volume 1 instead of volume 0. Searching your channel for such a video)
When I try to recover my system, I get I do not have Windows 10 installed.
when I trie bcdedit, I got "boot configuration data store could not be opened. The system cannot find the file specified"

[kostasdoulas]

Excellent tutorial…a difficult subject explained thoroughly..

[benjaminortiz]

You save my pc damn I was getting crazy with gtp doing commands from mbr and dont know what happened, and yes the format fs fat32 give me more problem than fix

[osamamuhammad]

Finally I found a good video. Thanks bro. God bless you.

[BWP]

good thing I ran across your channel before formatting my pc lol
thank you so much for information. Liked and Sub

[Pochaco]

I have a question. Wouldn't it be easier to identify the boot partition as the one formated as FAT32?

[basavarajchougala]

Could you please tell me what kind of error it is " the system partition was not found after executing the following command : "bootsect /nt60 sys"

It would be great helpful if you do little bit helps in this regard as early as possible.

Thanking you,

[Araz]

Thank you sir. It was very helpfull. 👍

[Rapidaq]

Hey can you help me? In you're video called "failure to attempt bootfile" you said that I need to deactivate windows partition. Is window partition the same as recovery partition? I'm new to this stuff so I'm confused. How do I know which volumes has windows partition?


Edit wait a minute... I think I'm stupid. My volume 1 "label" says windows with the type partition. Is that it?


Edit again: I typed in sel vol 4 which is my boot partition. And then typed active but it says "The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disks" "The ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disk." This is the most stressful moments in my life please help. :(

[ritik]

By the way can you make a video on how to solve blue bios loop problem? I have tried everything but got no relief. My laptop has to be guided to the bootmgr.ufi file location every time upon switching on and NOT when it's restarted. Changed the CMOS too, updated to latest version of the BIOS, checked the recovery partition and system partition and given BCDBOOT command after assigning and unassigning the letters to the partitions...all in vain. Problem remains. The boot partition is gpt formatted too in FAT32.
Please help😢😢😢😢

[Martin-otxj]

Hi there, it was very useful & practical tutorial video . thnx

[justaninja]

How do I switch C and D drives at the same time or merge both drives into C using command prompt?
After the last windows 10 update somehow C and D drives were switched so now Windows cannot boot up because it is trying to boot from C drive Volume 1 which is the Recovery drive but now my Windows is on D drive volume 0.
I've tried selecting C drive in command prompt booting from USB drive and assigning it a different letter like Z and Diskpart says that it successfully assigned the letter but when I go to list volume it still has Recovery listed as C and main partition listed as D.
For some reason it is refusing to change C drive to something else even though it says that it is changed. My disk is gpt. All partitions are listed as healthy. Bootrec /scanos = 0 total identified windows installations.
How do I reverse those 2 for good in command prompt?
I haven't been able to find a good article or video on it.

[camronshockley]

what other letter could the boot partition be other than B?

[RobiulIslam-mrzr]

Hello sir,
My laptop shows NTLDR Missing press Ctrl+alt+del to restart,

What should I do??

[Jasmine]

I typed 'list disk' but only my hdd & my plugged in usb are shown ><
my sdd still missing

[GataG-rfnr]

I did not find MPR system abbreviation, do you mean the MPR system for Master Boot Record Vs. GPT for Guide Part Table?
Please advise about them? Thanks.

[shaheenark]

You just assigned letters to the partitions and unassigned them later. How does it solve the booting problem?

[praveenrl]

Thank you so much, this helped me to recover boot error in my system. Your another video only helped me to recover. Thanks a lot...♥️