EFI System Partition?

[dbminter]

This computer I got a year ago is my first system I've ever had that uses UEFI.  There's a partition with the label ESP.  Partition Master says this is called the EFI System Partition, which makes ESP make sense.

 

 

So, what is this partition?  And what happens should it become damaged or accidentally deleted?  If this partition was gone, would a UEFI PC suddenly stop booting?  If there is damage to ESP or if it is deleted, then how can it be repaired? 

 

 

I have this partition imaged so I can recovery from it should anything happen to it, in theory.  But, I am curious.  Thanks!

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You may find that's where the manufacturers recovery stuff is located... so you can revert to factory defaults etc. You usually gain access to what's on it by pressing a certain key during the initial boot up sequence.

[dbminter]

So, it's not essential to booting the PC?  I would hope it's not.  IMO, if ESP were necessary to boot the PC, then there would be all kinds of potential problems.  A bad sector.  Some kind of malware that wipes the partition.