Does installing as UEFI over Legacy have any real benefits?

[Dunkurtin]

After about 6 hours of trying to setup an Ubuntu dual boot on my Vaio svE14A15FG all i succeeded in was eventually deleting the partition table. (I was told to run gdisk so the Live CD would see my windows install and automatically install along side as all manual efforts weren't working.) I'm running TestDisk at the moment to see about getting it all restored as I've moved around a bit in the last year and am not 100% sure of where my system restore disk has ended up. However I do also have a physical install disk and unused product key from family pack. That disk will only boot in legacy mode though. If I'm not too worried about losing files(everything important is also on my desktop) and having a clean install would I be missing out on anything important by using the legacy mode instead(which would also make installing Ubuntu alongside easier)?

 

[AddRAM]

In my opinion, no, you wouldn`t.

 

[gregrocker]

If you only want to repair the Win7 install you still have on the HD you can try running Startup Repair from System Recovery Options or the Win7 disk.

Make sure the BIOS is set for UEFI mode (if you're sure that's how it was installed) and that the UEFI partition is still on the HD. If the Win7 disk won't boot then reset the BIOS to defaults or try another Win7 bootable installation media from the Reinstall tutorial in my signature pic below.

Watch this video to understand better the differences between UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS - YouTube.

If Win7 won't reinstall following the special steps for UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with then you may need to switch to Legacy Mode in BIOS and during the booted install delete all partitions to reinstall, or to Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux - Windows 7 Forums.

Then follow the steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get a perfect install.

 

[theog]

This for Windows 8.
How to dual boot with Ubuntu & Windows 8, with Secure Boot ENABLED.
Practical UEFI Secure Boot (Part 3 of 3) - YouTube

 

[Dunkurtin]

Thank you for the helpful replies. TestDisk did end up finding my partitions by the looks of it but crashed once i started viewing folders to identify which ones needed to be kept. Considering it took a whole day to run the deep scan I'm not even considering re running. Just going to go with the clean Legacy BIOS install.

 

[gregrocker]

Bypass UEFI to Install WIn7

Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux - Windows 7 Forums
Dual boot Ubuntu-Win7

You will get and keep a perfect install to the exact extent you stick with the tools and methods in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. Make sure to read the Special Note for Vaio Owners at the end.