I'm trying to migrate my system to a SSD, and there's this 512mb EFI partition that's giving me trouble. Is this thing a leftover from Windows 8? Does Ubuntu need it to function properly? I'm not using dual boot.
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Yes, Ubuntu needs that EFI partition. UEFI is a (relatively) new method of booting for operating systems, and is much more featured than legacy/BIOS boot. Look it up for some more details.
If you don't copy it over, you aren't going to be able to boot, as it stores the bootloader files for OSes that support EFI. There may be Windows stuff left over, but there's also almost definitely GRUB files in there as well.
TheWanderer
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If you're copying an existing Ubuntu system, yes, then you must also copy the EFI partition.
If you can do a fresh installation, you might also decide to do a legacy install which does not need an EFI partition. There's no way to convert an installed system from UEFI to Legacy or vice versa. At least I don't know any, it's definitely not trivial.
To explain what this EFI partition is about:
It's needed for newer systems that use the (U)EFI technology to boot. This partition is common for all installed operating systems. Every bootloader stores some files there that describe how it wishes to be invoked by the UEFI system.
Byte Commander
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