UEFI pre-boot guidelines and Microsoft® Windows® 8 UEFI Secure Boot for HP Business PCs PPS business notebooks, desktop, and workstations - Technical White Paper
Technical white paper | UEFI Secure Boot on HP business notebooks, desktops, and workstations 
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Directories and descriptions 
The HP_TOOLS UEFI partition file and folder structure are similar to the Windows file and folder structure. During the 
installation of an UEFI application, the HP UEFI Application SoftPaqs unbundle into the C:\swsetup directory. The UEFI 
software installation then searches for the FAT32 partition labeled HP_TOOLS and installs itself into the following directory: 
:\Hewlett-Packard\<softwarename> 
Disk Layouts 
The disk layouts vary between notebooks, desktops, and workstations as shown in the following figures: 
Figure 1.  Disk layouts for notebooks .  
GPT-based layout  
UEFI System 
partition (ESP): 
File system: Fat32 
OS Partition:
File system: NTFS 
Data Partition 1 – n
(Where applicable):  
File system: NTFS 
HP_TOOLS partition: 
File system: Fat32 
Recovery partition: 
File system: NTFS 
MBR-based layout  
System partition 
(Where applicable): 
File system: NTFS 
OS Partition: 
File system: NTFS 
Data partition 1 – n 
(Where applicable):  
File system: NTFS 
HP_TOOLS partition: 
File system: Fat32 
Recovery partition: 
File system: NTFS 
Figure 2.  Disk layouts for desktops.  
GPT-based layout  
UEFI System 
partition (ESP): 
File system: Fat32 
WinRE 
Partition 
OS  
Partition: 
File system:  
NTFS 
Data partition 1 – n 
(Where applicable):  
File system: NTFS 
Recovery partition: 
File system: NTFS 
HP_Tools partition: 
File system: Fat32 
MBR-based layout  
UEFI System 
partition (ESP): 
File system: NTFS 
WinRE  
Partition:  
OS  
Partition: 
File system:  
NTFS 
Data partition 1 – n 
(Where applicable):  
File system: NTFS 
Recovery partition: 
File system: NTFS 
HP_Tools partition: 
File system: Fat32 
Figure 3.  Disk layouts for workstations.  
GPT-based layout (requires UEFI/GPT boot, no data partitions on C: drive) 
WinRE partition (C:) 
File system: Fat32, (1023MB) 
ESP (C:) 
360MB 
OS partition(C:) 
File system: Fat32 
(remainder of drive) 
Recovery partition (D:) 
File system: NTFS 
(about 8GB) 
HP_TOOLS Partition directories and descriptions 
The HP_TOOLS partition structure should mirror what we already have for NTFS file system. And the UEFI application and 
pre-boot application installation should follow the rules for other HP software. 
Web-released pre-boot deliverables require current softpaqs. When a softpaq is run, it will extract into the “C:\swsetup 
directory”, the same as other softpaqs. Then the pre-boot software installation should search for the Fat 32 partition with 
the “HP_TOOLS” label and install itself under the directory “:\HEWLETT-PACKARD\softwarename.” 
For example, you place the HP System Diagnostic and its digital signature under “:\HEWLETT-
PACKARD\SYSTEMDIAGS\SystemDiags.UEFI” and “SystemDiags.Sig.” 










