Windows 7 and UEFI Compatibility

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gopher22

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I am sure this has been asked before.

I have Windows 7 installed on one of my machines using Legacy boot. If I change the boot mode to UEFI, will windows 7 still run?
 

My Computer

Computer type
Laptop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Sony VGNZ
OS
Windows 7 64 bit
CPU
Centrino 2
Hard Drives
1 TB
Browser
Chrome; IE.
If the BIOS was in legacy mode before Windows 7 was installed, do not change the BIOS to UEFI mode.
If you do, Windows 7 will not load.

Why are you wanting to change the BIOS to UEFI mode?
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Dell OptiPlex 9020
OS
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7-4790 3.60 GHz
Memory
32 GB DDR3-1600 MHz
Graphics Card(s)
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600
Monitor(s) Displays
Viewsonic 32" LCD
Hard Drives
Kingston SATA 3 240 GB SSD
Internet Speed
Spectrum Internet 1000 Mbps
A drive can be initialized as MBR or GPT.
Windows 7 can be installed as Legacy on a MBR drive or as UEFI on a GPT drive.
As Legacy-MBR drive has a different boot sequence of UEFI - GPT drive you can't just change the boot type on BIOS.
You have to:
- Convert the drive from Legacy-MBR to UEFI - GPT using a Win 10 USB installation drive and run mbr2gpt.exe from a CMD window. (don't try to convert without making a drive image as a backup)
- After conversion you set BIOS to boot as UEFI

I can guide you on the conversion.
I need to see a full Disk Manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) image
Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
    custom build
    OS
    Windows 7 HP 64
    CPU
    i5 6600K - 800MHz to 4200MHz
    Motherboard
    GA-Z170-HD3P
    Memory
    4+4G GSkill DDR4 3000
    Graphics Card(s)
    IG - Intel 530
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 226BW
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    (1) -1 SM951 – 128GB M.2 AHCI PCIe SSD drive for Windows 7 and Lubuntu
    (2) -1 WD SATA 3 - 1T for Data
    (3) -1 WD SATA 3 - 1T for backup
    PSU
    Thermaltake 450W TR2 gold
    Keyboard
    Old and good Chicony mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech mX performance - 9 buttons (had to disable some)
    Internet Speed
    500Mb/s
    Browser
    Firefox 64
    Other Info
    TinyWall firewall
  • Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model Number
    Asus Q550LF
    OS
    Windows 7 Pro
    CPU
    i7-4500U 800MHz to 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus Q550LF
    Memory
    (4+4)G DDR3 1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    IG intel 4400 + NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG Display LP156WF4-SPH1
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    BX500 120G SSD for Windows and programs +
    1T HDD for data
    Internet Speed
    500 Mb/s
    Browser
    Firefox
    Other Info
    TinyWall firewall
Hiren's BootCD PE has disk tools like, DiskGenius or Macrorit Partition Expert that can convert MBR to GPT. Download | Hiren's BootCD PE


What's the difference between Hiren's BootCD PE and a full blown Windows 10 disk? Well, Hiren's is smaller for one. It's also a PE (preinstallation Environment) live OS of Windows 10 for modern use in BIOS or UEFI. So you don't have to burn some 4+ GB of data to a USB drive or what ever. I use Ventoy to boot Hiren's. You just format the USB drive with Ventoy and quite literally copy/paste the Hiren's iso file on the Ventoy USB formatted drive. Boot the drive like you'd do to install an OS and Ventoy will show a menu to select what you'd like to boot. If you just have the one Hiren's iso file on the drive then that'll be all you can boot of course. You could copy/paste many iso files to the Ventoy USB formatted drive and pick from those to boot from withen Ventoy's menu. One of my Ventoy formatted drives has Hiren's alone with Memtest86.


Ventoy

- - - Updated - - -

I just want to add here that unless you need to use hard drives that are larger than 2 TB, you don't need a GPT partition scheme and as a consequence, full blown UEFI in replace of BIOS. That's only if your BIOS supports legacy BIOS and UEFI like mine does. Now-a-days it's UEFI or the highway. Well, here's a problem with that. With Windows 8 on up there's something called WPBT (Windows Platform Binary Table) withen UEFI that can be used for rootkit like behavior. Read here and here.

Also, UEFI has its very own richer network stack.

Also see here.

There are alternative BIOS' but mostly geared towards Linux.


Here's a little Info. on the network stack in some of the best English ever.. Networking Features under the UEFI shell - YouTube

cURL like a real hacker... Networking Features under the UEFI shell - YouTube (Regarding the low entropy with UEFI and lack of a "real" RNG, just "cURL" this website.... LOL RANDOM.ORG - Introduction to Randomness and Random Numbers)

To think hospitals use Windows 10 and are prime target for zeroday ransomware...
 
Last edited:

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
flavallee said:
If the BIOS was in legacy mode before Windows 7 was installed, do not change the BIOS to UEFI mode.
If you do, Windows 7 will not load.Why are you wanting to change the BIOS to UEFI mode?
Click to expand...
I was curious as, all of my other machines with Win 10 are UEFI except my dual boot PC. Win 7 is in the D drive partition and Win 10 "WAS" C drive partition before it crashed and burned. I was wondering if I changed it to UEFI before I re-install I was curious how win 7 would react.

- - - Updated - - -

F22 Simpilot said:
Hiren's BootCD PE has disk tools like, DiskGenius or Macrorit Partition Expert that can convert MBR to GPT. Download | Hiren's BootCD PE.
Click to expand...

My Hiram's Boot CD is as old as the hills, should I download the latest?
 

My Computer

Computer type
Laptop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Sony VGNZ
OS
Windows 7 64 bit
CPU
Centrino 2
Hard Drives
1 TB
Browser
Chrome; IE.
If you use one of those software's to convert a MBR to GPT it won't boot. Only mbr2gpt.exe will convert MBR to GPT and create a EFI Fat32 partition (required to boot from a GPT drive)
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
    custom build
    OS
    Windows 7 HP 64
    CPU
    i5 6600K - 800MHz to 4200MHz
    Motherboard
    GA-Z170-HD3P
    Memory
    4+4G GSkill DDR4 3000
    Graphics Card(s)
    IG - Intel 530
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 226BW
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    (1) -1 SM951 – 128GB M.2 AHCI PCIe SSD drive for Windows 7 and Lubuntu
    (2) -1 WD SATA 3 - 1T for Data
    (3) -1 WD SATA 3 - 1T for backup
    PSU
    Thermaltake 450W TR2 gold
    Keyboard
    Old and good Chicony mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech mX performance - 9 buttons (had to disable some)
    Internet Speed
    500Mb/s
    Browser
    Firefox 64
    Other Info
    TinyWall firewall
  • Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model Number
    Asus Q550LF
    OS
    Windows 7 Pro
    CPU
    i7-4500U 800MHz to 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus Q550LF
    Memory
    (4+4)G DDR3 1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    IG intel 4400 + NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG Display LP156WF4-SPH1
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    BX500 120G SSD for Windows and programs +
    1T HDD for data
    Internet Speed
    500 Mb/s
    Browser
    Firefox
    Other Info
    TinyWall firewall
Now that I did not know. I found another program that supposedly does that, but I'm assuming Windows' tool of MBR2GPT would be more applicable and straight forward without proprietary nonsense.



My Hiram's Boot CD is as old as the hills, should I download the latest?
Click to expand...

Yes, if you plan on using Hiren's for PC diagnostics or what ever then I'd be more inclined to use the newer version which uses a Windows 10 PE and updated tools. However, you might want to keep the older version if it's XP PE. I don't think you can download that version anywhere. Something like that would come in handy for older computers that ran XP I suppose. I used something called UBCD way back in the day with XP. Still have that disk in a CD case. Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

Again, you can format a USB drive with Ventoy and just copy/paste the iso right to the drive. When you boot Ventoy you have a menu from which to chose which OS you would like to boot from. So you could have Memtest86, UBCD and Hiren's all one one drive... Not sure if you can format optical media with Ventoy. Something I've been meaning to read about and/or try. Reason why you might want to use optical media is that depending on the optical type and natural of the PC being worked on, nothing can write to your source media... Great for looking for malware or whatever.

- - - Updated - - -

Wow, first release was in 2003. Ultimate Boot CD - Version History

- - - Updated - - -

Oops! I used UBCD4Win! Not UBCD which is Linux based. LOL UBCD for Windows
 

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
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