HP Business Notebook HP_TOOLS Partition Guidelines

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1. Introduction
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Ascomputertechnologyhasadvanced,theBIOS(BasicInput/OutputSystem)has
expandedinanefforttohandlenewcomponents,largerandmorecomplex
chipsets,add‐incards,andsoon.ThisexpansionoftheBIOShasmadeit
increasinglyintricate.
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Thecomputerindustry’sanswertoaddressBIOSlimitationsisthedevelopment
oftheExtensibleFirmwareInterface(EFI).EFIisasetofmodularinterfacesthat
replacesthesetoftraditionalBIOSinterfacesbetweentheoperatingsystemand
platformfirmware.
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EFIisbasedonthehigh‐levelClanguageandisdriver‐based,scalable,andeasyto
debugandupgrade.EFIusesamodular,platform‐independentarchitecturethat
canperformbootandotherBIOSfunctions.
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Tappingintothistechnology,HPhasimplementedaprebootpartitiononallofits
commercialnotebookcomputers.
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AlongwithreplacingthetraditionalBIOS
interface,theHPpartitionaddstoolstotheprebootsystemenvironment.The
partitionisviewableontheharddriveandislabeledasHP_TOOLS.On2008and
latercommercialnotebookplatformswiththeEFIBIOS,HPcreatedthepartition
asaFAT32partition,duetoEFIBIOSlimitationswithaccessingotherpartition
formats.
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FormoreinformationaboutEFI,gotohttp://www.hp.com/go/techcenter
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2. Supported Platforms
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TheHP_Toolspartitionfeaturedescribedinthisdocumentissupportedby2008
and2009HPbusinessnotebooks.
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3. Location of HP EFI and Preboot Applications- the
HP_TOOLS Fat32 Partition
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