When you encounter an error "The firmware partition is missing", it means that the necessary firmware partition cannot be found during macOS installation. 1. First check whether the disk has an EFI partition (usually 200MB to 500MB FAT32 or MS-DOS format). If not, it needs to be created manually; 2. The EFI partition can be repaired or rebuilt through terminal commands (such as diskutil list and gpt add), and formatted into the correct format; 3. Black Apple users should ensure that the EFI partition is mounted, the boot configuration is complete, the BIOS enables UEFI mode and the installation disk is correctly made; 4. When replacing the hard disk or migrating the system, make sure that the cloning tool copies the EFI partition, and manually creates and uses the bless command to restore startup information if necessary.

When you encounter the error " The firmware partition is missing ", it basically means that you encounter the problem that the system cannot find the necessary firmware partition when installing or reinstalling macOS. This problem is more likely to occur on Hackintosh or some old Macs, but it may also occur on factory devices, especially if you have moved the disk structure, upgraded the hardware, or used a non-standard installation method.

Below are some common reasons and response methods to help you troubleshoot and solve this problem step by step.

1. Check whether the disk partition structure is correct

During the macOS installation process, a special partition called firmware (usually corresponding to the EFI system partition) is found to store some of the underlying programs required to start. If the partition does not exist, is incorrect in the format, or is not correctly recognized, an error will be reported.

You can check this way:

• After booting with the Install USB drive, open Disk Utility
• Check if your target disk has EFI partitions (usually 200MB to 500MB in size, format FAT32 or MS-DOS)
• If not, you may need to create it manually

Tips: Some users choose "APFS" when formatting the disk but do not pay attention to the partitioning scheme. EFI partitions may not be automatically created by default.

2. Use the terminal to manually repair or rebuild the EFI partition

If you have confirmed that the EFI partition is missing, you can try to fix it with the terminal command:

1. Open "Terminal" in the installation interface (can be found through "Utilities" in the top menu bar)
2. Enter diskutil list to find your main disk (such as /dev/disk0 )
3. Then run the following command (taking disk0 as an example):

    gpt show /dev/disk0

4. If you see that there is unallocated space, you can use the following command to create an EFI partition:

    sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-980A-11D2-9A92-00C04FA308C3 disk0

5. After creation is completed, use disk tools to format the new partition into FAT32 or MS-DOS format.

?? Note: It is best to back up data before operation, because misoperation may cause damage to the disk structure.

3. Special precautions for Black Apple users

If you are installing macOS (aka Hackintosh) on your assembled PC, this error is more common, and the reasons may be:

• Boot loader (such as OpenCore or Clover) is incomplete configuration
• The EFI partition is not mounted for related files to be written
• UEFI startup mode is turned off in BIOS settings

We recommend that you check the following points:

• Whether to mount the EFI partition as readable and writeable (can be viewed with the mount command in the terminal)
• Have you put the necessary driver and config.plist file in the right place?
• Is UEFI mode enabled in BIOS and Legacy Boot turned off
• Is the USB installation disk correctly made (Recommended to use Install Media with OpenCore)

Sometimes even if you have an EFI partition, the system cannot find it. It may be because the partition type identifier (GUID) is wrong. At this time, you need to use gpt command to reset the GUID type.

4. Frequently Asked Questions After Replacing Hard Drive or Migrating System

If you are migrating from an old hard drive to a new hard drive, or replacing an SSD, you may also experience this error because the cloning process missed the EFI partition.

Solution:

• When using a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner, make sure to check the Copy EFI Partition option
• If the cloning has been completed but there is an error, you can try manually creating the EFI partition in Disk Utility and then use the Terminal Tool to restore the boot information
• Use the terminal command bless --folder /Volumes/你的系統(tǒng)卷/System/Library/CoreServices to rebuild startup information

Basically these common methods of handling it. Although it seems a bit technical, it can be solved by taking it step by step. The key point is to ensure that the EFI partition exists, is formatted correctly, and is correctly recognized by macOS.

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