Changing Win 7 from IDE to UEFI indestructibly 'on the fly'

[ttiihone]

I me old Tommi again :)

I have been googling about this 'problem' but I just cannot seem to get a good understanding and expertise over this matter;

I have a MSI Z77A-GD65 MoBo so it is UEFI compatible and I just haven't previously have ANY idea about what the heck this UEFI actually is. Well, now I know that it 'replaces' the regular BIOS or something like that, and I have found some info on how to indestructibly change from ancient IDE environment to UEFI without having to reinstall the OS. So I guess it is possible...?

But what I'd like to have information about is as good info as possible about UEFI in ONE PLACE and not having to browse dozens of Forums which only make my ADHD brains spin like hell. I guess my 3 HDD RAID0 drive doesn't even operate on its best possible performance now? Poor me didn't even choose AHCI when I reinstalled my PC, let alone UEFI.

- So what will happen to my bios?
- How do I adjust 'BIOS' then?
- UEFI has an booting up configuration environment of its own?
- What does UEFI provide me?
- Can You adjust me on changing from IDE to UEFI and what all I have to take notice of?
- Should I alter to UEFI first from my current BIOS and is it possible to restore everything (drive C: - OS drive, and drive D: - user profile and software drive) from an Acronis backup? Or is the file system completely different then?
- What happens to MBR? And what is GPT? Do I need to even think about those when changing to UEFI?

Yep, sorry, a whole lot of questions, but I'm pretty bad at googling since I get so anxious and frustrated easily. It just makes me 'mad' that I do have a pretty decent MoBo and I - out of my low expertise - only use currently the ancient IDE system! I really want to utilize every single piece of performance and modern features available.

I hope You can help me. Thank You all in advance!

Yours,

-Tommi Tiihonen

 

[ttiihone]

One addition; I have written on this Forum yesterday about my very slow Acronis Backup F11 boot option appearing on startup + slow Win 7 startup before the flying Win logo appears. I'm pretty sure that those both problems will be solved by transferring my environment to UEFI. So if You agree with me then it might be better to prioritize THIS thread before concentrating on those other two threads that I have posted before. Just my own idea :)

Thank You in advance! You make our lives so much better \m/

-Tommi

 

[zcomputerwiz]

If you had configured a RAID 0 array that should mean that the SATA mode in the BIOS/firmware is already set to RAID, not IDE. Can you confirm that the SATA mode is RAID?

There is not an easy way to switch a boot drive from MBR to GPT and enable UEFI boot, you would have to completely rebuild the boot configuration after the change. Fortunately, there shouldn't be any difference in performance either way.

For the Acronis F11 recovery prompt - is this a feature you want to disable?

 

[ttiihone]

Hi and orry for the delay. Already new year 2016 here n Finland =) So good forthcoming new year to You also.

OK, so do You mean that I would not have any kinds of performance enhancements using UEFI system? And yes, I have drive D as a 2 SSD RAID 0 configuration. And I want to keep it that way but now this:::

I'm planning on doing a complete reinstall of Windows 7 x64 since even if Aura helped me solve the SFC issue, I seem to still have all kinds of issues and who knos what. It's one hell of a job but I think I got to do it.

So should I install - or IS IT POSSIBLE to install - Windows 7 x64 on my single SSD Corsair 120GB size drive and is it possible to use the RAID0 drive as drive D to which I will configure my User Profile on - so that the system is UEFI? I have no damn clue on what the heck this UEFI truly is.. =( Is it a file system? Or only some kind of a startup environment replacing BIOS? How can I use my D drive then? Since it doesn't have an operating system (but only sftare + user profile) then is it somehow benefit on this UEFI system?

I already checked out this Sevenforums instructions of installing UEFI Win 7 and I tried changing my MoBo BIOS settings to "BOOT MODE SELECT ==> [LEGACY+UEFI] and then selected Boot order:::: 1. CD/DVD (not UEFI DVD) and 2. [UEFI HARD DISK] and I saved and rebooted from the DVD and tried to start installing OS on my Corsair SSD drive (of course I initialized it first) but the OS installer only warns me about that "Win 7 cannot be installed on this drive". That should be actually OK and in reference to Sevenforum's instructions I can safely just click on NEXT - NEXT.... ut the thing is that after the first NEXT (with that initial error message on the installer) I get the error that OS installer couldn't make any partitions on that drive. Sevenforum's 'said' that it should automatically make 3 partitions and as a GPT format. But it doesn't. Should I change some further settings on my BIOS? Selecting the BOOT MODE SELECTION options as (only) UEFI, then my PC won't boot from the VD (which in boot order can only be configured as UEFI DVD as the first boot option).

But I thought that UEFI would be somehow faster (at least when booting up, I read) but do You mean it isn't? And what is GPT? General Partitioning Table? If I remember correctly... I don't really have energy to browse the Forums with this Laptop.. But is GPT better that MBR? Are there any advantages using GPT? Except for enabling of using huge size HD's?

I guess if I truly benfit nothing amazing then I should stick with this IDE or AHCI mode. One thing about this::: I only seem to have the option in the parameter named "External SATA 6GB/s Controller Mode" to choose between AHCI and IDE. What is that "external SATA"? Does it mean my SSD's? At least it renders my OS unbootable when changing ie. frm AHCI to IDE, as my current Windows is initially installed as this option set to AHCI. I wrote earlier another thread about this slow boot-up time of my PC and said that I had IDE mode but it is actually AHCI.

I remember having IDE mode active 1½ years ago when I had the same Win 7 x64 installed on the same PC with the same HD + etc. configuration and the boot-up time was really short. Meaning that it didn't back then hang on the "Starting Windows..." screen for 30 dead seconds. So are there any performance benefits using either one (IDE or AHCI) ovr the other one? If I reinstall my PC using IDE mode then will the HD's or OS or whatever be slower cause I guess that AHCI is a more modern... aaaa.... 'thing'? Of course I don't want to suffer from lower performance because of the extra 30 seconds to boot-up time.

And that Acronis thing::: In IDE mode I remember having the Acronis "press F11" option appearing really quickly (and the quicker booting altogether) but I can't remember like, say, my HD performance ratings at all. When in IDE more, I mean. 1½ years ago.

It's so difficult to get the type of "tell me like I were 6 year old" kind of info anywhere. I'm sure there are sources of info on all of this in plain English somewhere but due to my neurological conditions (ADHD+Asperger+Tourette) I find it very consuming and unpleasant browsing tens of websites. That's hy I chose to choose solely SysNative as my source of info since You guys have helped me succesfully also earlier. And I can get all the help from one place :]

So to the conclusion::: My instinct says to me that I should stick with IDE/AHCI. RAID0 I don't have a clue if it's even possible to use with UEFI. And that UEFI Shell... No idea. NOOOOOOO idea whatsoever that what the heck is that either. So I guess my only 'problem' is choosing between IDE and AHCI. But I'd really much like to read all the comments and help on all these issues on this thread. Not meaning to take all your time from helping others but I'll be waiting from your reply when You hve time. =]

Thanks for reading and helping out! Greetings to Aura also.

Sincerely,

-Tommi

PS. I have a MSI Z77A-GD65 MoBo, 16GB DDR3 RAM, a single SSD drive for Windows OS and a RAID0 consisting of 2 SSD's for User profiles and software, too little money and one hell of a Nicotin redrawal symptoms so I'm out for a smoke now =)

 

[zcomputerwiz]

If you intend to do a clean install, it would be an ideal time to change the configuration. Are you going to stay with Windows 7 or are you going to upgrade to Windows 10?

GPT = GUID Partition Table. The primary advantage is that it supports partitions larger than 2TB. System firmware in UEFI mode can easily boot a GPT drive.

If you intend to go this route, when you have a good backup of all your existing data and are ready to install Windows make sure that the system is configured for UEFI only (not Legacy) and verify that the SATA controller is still in RAID or AHCI mode.
After this change has been made you can boot your Windows installation media as usual then delete all existing partitions and select the drive that you would like to install Windows to (your solo SSD).