Skip to main content
  • Place orders quickly and easily
  • View orders and track your shipping status
  • Enjoy members-only rewards and discounts
  • Create and access a list of your products
Some article numbers may have changed. If this isn't what you're looking for, try searching all articles. Search articles

How Bootable Devices Work in UEFI Boot Mode

Summary: This article provides information about how bootable devices work in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) mode.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.

Symptoms

How bootable devices work in UEFI mode:

In order for BIOS to show a UEFI boot option for a fixed disk, there are only two possibilities:

  • The fixed disk has this file EFI\boot\bootX64.efi stored in the root folder
  • The OS installer has created a boot option on the disk.
Note: This boot option is only built during UEFI OS installation. The OS installer code finds the drive (blockIo device) to install the OS and create a boot option.

If the PERC hard drive image was originally installed in legacy BIOS mode, none of the above are true. There is no boot option for BIOS to list in the UEFI boot menu.


Removable media is treated differently:

BIOS always builds a boot option for removable media regardless of media presence. The virtual media (virtual Floppy and Virtual CD) should show up in the UEFI boot menu as removable device boot options. If they do not show up, then they were disabled.


Cause

Not required

Resolution

See above.

Affected Products

Servers
Article Properties
Article Number: 000138085
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 25 Jul 2024
Version:  6
Find answers to your questions from other Dell users
Support Services
Check if your device is covered by Support Services.