UEFI or Legacy?

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  1. Posts : 27
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    UEFI or Legacy?


    Hello,

    I have just finished making myself a decent gaming rig and im on the last step at the moment; which is installing Windows 7. I have noticed that when trying to install Windows on my pc there's two option: one is Legacy and the other is UEFI, and since I'm not really and expert when it comes to such things, I decided to postpone the installation process until I figure this out. So, which of these should I choose as an installation method? I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me with that. Thank you!
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  2. Posts : 231
    Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64 bit
       #2

    UEFI has some advantages over BIOS,such as:

    Faster booting
    Support of 128 logical partitions
    Support for disks which have a size of over 2.2 TB
    Support for Legacy BIOS

    Since your desire is gaming,install with UEFI. There's no reason to go with BIOS unless you have old hardware.

    This tutorial shows you how to install Windows in UEFI:
    UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with
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  3. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #3

    I think UEFI has a few new features such as Secure Boot and boots a bit faster. Maybe supports booting from a larger partition? That might be useful if your OS drive is 3 TB.

    I'm not sure UEFI has any advantages to speak of once you are into Windows.

    I've seen it advised to not do UEFI-native installs to MBR-formatted disks, or BIOS compatibility installs to GPT-formatted disks.

    I haven't got it entirely sorted out myself.

    Are you using a large boot drive? Do you intend to use an MBR boot disk or a GPT boot disk? You can have an MBR boot disk and a GPT storage drive on the same system.
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  4. Posts : 27
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #4

    VistaUltimate said:
    UEFI has some advantages over BIOS,such as:

    Faster booting
    Support of 128 logical partitions
    Support for disks which have a size of over 2.2 TB
    Support for Legacy BIOS

    Since your desire is gaming,install with UEFI. There's no reason to go with BIOS unless you have old hardware.

    This tutorial shows you how to install Windows in UEFI:
    UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with
    Much appreciated, VistaUltimate. I'll go ahead and install it now. Solved.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 27
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    ignatzatsonic said:
    I think UEFI has a few new features such as Secure Boot and boots a bit faster. Maybe supports booting from a larger partition? That might be useful if your OS drive is 3 TB.

    I'm not sure UEFI has any advantages to speak of once you are into Windows.

    I've seen it advised to not do UEFI-native installs to MBR-formatted disks, or BIOS compatibility installs to GPT-formatted disks.

    I haven't got it entirely sorted out myself.

    Are you using a large boot drive? Do you intend to use an MBR boot disk or a GPT boot disk? You can have an MBR boot disk and a GPT storage drive on the same system.
    Hello, ignatzatsonic. I appreciate your help.

    I have a 240GB SSD and a 1TB HDD, and I do not know what I want to use for booting, I'm trying to figure this out myself.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #6

    clicky said:

    Hello, ignatzatsonic. I appreciate your help.

    I have a 240GB SSD and a 1TB HDD, and I do not know what I want to use for booting, I'm trying to figure this out myself.
    You'd be a fool not use the SSD as your boot device and for as many applications as will fit on it. Why wouldn't you want to take advantage of its speed?

    With drives of that size, you could avoid GPT entirely--stay purely with MBR. Or go with GPT all the way. Either way.

    Barring some peculiar requirement, I'd just use a single C partition on the SSD and then use the HDD for storage, also as a single partition.
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  7. Posts : 231
    Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64 bit
       #7

    ignatzasonic,UEFI of course doesn't have many advantages that are seen while into Windows. UEFI supports GPT boot drives only if you are in UEFI Mode. If you are in Legacy BIOS (or BIOS originally) Mode,you must have an MBR boot disk,otherwise "no bootable media.Press Ctrl+Alt+Del".

    UEFI is also safer. Now that Windows 8 is here,it's going to be used more. When it was released,it had the name "EFI" and it was available for Itanium computers only. Windows Server 2003 was the first OS to provide support for Itanium x64 (IA-64). Windows Vista SP1 was the first OS to provide support for UEFI but few used UEFI. BIOS is dying gradually,as VHS did with DVD. BIOS was released in the 1980's while UEFI (originally EFI) was released in 1999-2000. VHS was released in 1976 while DVD was released in 1996-1997.

    If you don't have many apps,use the SSD. You can transfer your videos,pictures,documents,music to the HDD.
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  8. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #8

    VistaUltimate:

    I'm going to rebuild in a few months from the ground up, with all new hardware.

    I'm contemplating going purely with GPT/UEFI, with no traces of MBR/BIOS at all.

    But I'm interested in the shortcomings of that strategy.

    Such as full compatibility with imaging applications other than Windows built-in, which I don't use.

    Advantages such as a bit faster boot or support for large boot drives don't matter to me compared to possible shortcomings--which is what I'm trying to research.

    Opinions?
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  9. Posts : 231
    Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64 bit
       #9

    I would tell that a built-in application doesn't work with UEFI (bootsect.exe /nt52,bootsect.exe /nt60).
    Possible shortcomings? I don't think you will have problem with UEFI,unless you have old hardware (2006 and older). Applications other than the built-in ones should work normally.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 27
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #10

    I appreciate your help, VistaUltimate & ignatzatsonic. I have just finished installing my Windows 7 using UEFI and so far so good. Thanks again. Solved.
      My Computer


 
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