Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 DVI - how do I turn on UFEI for hard disks?

Hi folks,

A bit of a specialised question this since it is motherboard-specific.

I have a Win 7 SP1 installation which I have cloned from a 2TB hard disk to a larger 5TB hard disk.

I have, of course, hit the '2TB problem' because the drive was formatted in the MBR partition scheme (and hence the clone is too).

I have some instructions as to how to convert the drive to use the GPT partition scheme (link is here for those interested > How to convert MBR disk to GPT, but, of course, the BIOS of the motherboard now needs to be changed to recognise that the hard disk is a GPT disk.

As the thread title says, the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA H61M-DS2 DVI.

The BIOS is Gigabyte UFEI DualBIOS (c) 2013 American Megatrends Inc

I've looked at the relevant page in the BIOS (under 'BIOS Features') but can't understand what I am seeing. The User Manual for this motherboard (page 22) is also quite cryptic.

On this page in my BIOS, I get the following:

Under 'Boot Option Priorities'

Boot Option #1 ubuntu
Boot Option #2 P1 ASUS DRW-24F1ST (my DVD-RW optical drive)
Boot Option #3 UFEI OS
Boot Option #4 ubuntu
Boot Option #5 P0 TOSHIBA HDWE150 (my 5TB hard disk)
Boot Option #6 ubuntu
Boot Option #7 ubuntu

< I don't understand what the ubuntu entries are doing there - that's Linux isn't it? >
< I'm also unsure as ti exactly what is meant by 'UFEI OS' option #3 >

Further down the page unter 'Boot Mode Selection' I have: UFEI and Legacy

Can anyone explain, in simple, easy-to-understand steps, what I have to do? If I'm reading this correctly, I don't need to do anything if under 'Boot Mode' the setting is 'UFEI and Legacy. However, I don't want to convert the disk from MBR to GPT and not be able to boot the computer, so I need some reassurance first.

Thanks in anticipation,

Zaph

F22 Simpilot said:

Your boot mode selection is what you probably want. So it would be the UEFI option of course.

The boot option priorities is just what partition or device you want to boot from. And Yes, Ubuntu is Linux and why it's there as a boot partition I don't know. Did you add Linux to your hard drive at one time? If so, the boot manager may still be on the HDD.

Only ran Linux off a Live USB stick - I didn't install Linux so it shouldn't be on the drive.

F22 Simpilot said:

The other reason why Ubuntu may be showing is if you have a USB or SD card connected to your computer that has a boot manager identified by your BIOS as a possible boot device.

Not aware of having any USB stick in the pc at the time I looked at the BIOS

F22 Simpilot said:

If all fails with the 5TB drive you still will have your original 2TB drive with data, correct?

Yes, that's correct.

I don't like doing anything without having a cloned backup of the drive. So, for example, when going from 1TB >> 2TB, I end up with two copies, I use the 2TB disk and keep back the 1TB "just in case".

Similarly here, the 2TB was cloned onto the 5TB disk and I still have the 2TB in case any "fiddling" I do causes everything to go south.

My understanding (and the bit I'm seeking confirmation about) is the Dual Boot 'UFEI and Legacy' option. To me this reads that I can connect either a MBR-partitioned or GPT-partitioned disk and the BIOS will quite happily see the drive and boot from it.

Does that sound reasonable?

Zaph

Does that sound reasonable?

yes

Please post a Disk manager image so we can see what you have on your disks.

Windows 10 has a MBRtoUEFI application that also work for Win 7.
To convert a MBR Win 7 disk to GPT you must boot a Win 10 PE and run the app.
Best way is to create a windows 10 recovery tools boot able disk and run the MBRtoUEFI app.
Detach ALL other drives from the MB (Power or SATA cable), leaving on only the 5T HDD.

Use Brink tutorial
Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk in Windows 10 | Tutorials option two

Boot from the windows 10 recovery tools
1 Open a command prompt (CMD window).

2 Find the disk number (n)
diskpart (to enter diskpart)
list disk (take note of the number assigned to your 5T HDD)
Exit (to exit diskpart)

3 Copy and paste this cmd line:
mbr2gpt /convert /disk:n
command into the command prompt, and press Enter.
(n is the disk number you you found with list disk)

4 When the conversion has successfully completed, you will need to boot to UEFI firmware settings, and switch the firmware to boot to UEFI mode instead of Legacy BIOS (CSM).

There are several ways to non destrutively convert mbr> gpt

You could use aomei part assistant, or with a bit more manual input you can use diskgenius ( free version)

AOMEI PART ASSIST PRO


HOW TO CONVERT TO GPT WITH DISKGENIUS

They will both create winpe boot media, which you can boot into to do the job.

Yes. Look at the links in my previous post

Megahertz07 said:

@SIW2, it has to convert to GPT AND create the Fat32 UEFI partition.
Does does Aomei and / or diskgenius do the job?

Thanks guys - especially SIW2

One question before I do this (and I think I know the answer) ...

If I convert the disk from MBR >> GPT and (for whatever reason) the BIOS/Mobo can't read the newly-changed HDD, can I revert the disk (non-destructively) back to MBR (I'm guessing NO).

Zaph