Question Change from Legacy to UEFI Boot, is it safe in Windows ?

[LeVzi]

I see it is possible to change from legacy boot to UEFI (My motherboard supports it) using Windows 10 MBR2GPT.EXE

My question is, is it safe ? Messing with the MBR to the GPT section of the disk could mess it up completely.

Have people successfully done this ? And should I be happy to do it ? I can take a full backup first ,just in case. but id rather leave well alone if there is a big risk doing this ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Colif]

Honestly I wouldn't do it until you ready to do a clean install of windows 10. As there is a risk it won't work and also, there isn't a big benefit unless your hard drive is over 2.2tb in size.

If/when you clean install win 10 it will see your PC is capable of GPT and want to use that.

 

[USAFRet]

Always always always have a known good backup of anything you do not want to lose.
Prefeably, a full drive backup.

 

[LeVzi]

I take regular disk full backups of 2 of my 3 drives. So that wouldnt be a problem and id do a full backup then do this. But as you said there must be a risk, I just wonder how much there is, and if the only real benefit is for over 2tb drives, I cant see the point, I thought uefi had other benefits ?

 

[Colif]

well, UEFI is more than just GPT. its the actual bios you are using. GPT/MBR is just part of it.

Every bios since 2009 has been a UEFI bios. The biggest noticeable difference for most users is it has a graphical interface and knows what a mouse is for. Most of the big changes are below the surface, like it allows the addition of new features unimagined when BIOS was first introduces in the 1980's or whenever it was.

 

[SkyNetRising]

My question is, is it safe ?

It's safe.

Have people successfully done this ?

Yes.

And should I be happy to do it ?

There's not really much benefit in going from legacy boot to UEFI boot.
If there's no some specific reason you'd want to do it, then don't.

Are you sure, your motherboard supports UEFI boot? What model motherboard?
Because, if it doesn't support UEFI and you go through with mbr2gpt conversion, then there's no easy way for going back.

 

[LeVzi]

It's safe.

Yes.

There's not really much benefit in going from legacy boot to UEFI boot.
If there's no some specific reason you'd want to do it, then don't.

Are you sure, your motherboard supports UEFI boot? What model motherboard?
Because, if it doesn't support UEFI and you go through with mbr2gpt conversion, then there's no easy way for going back.

The board is 970A UD3P and it has the option for UEFI Bios and legacy. I was under the impression UEFI is faster and better for the system. But if it is only really for using drives over 2TB (I have 2x 1TB drives in my system and a 500gb gaming drive) I dont think I need it, BUT that may change if I fill up these drives too quick. (Which I am doing)

 

[LeVzi]

well, UEFI is more than just GPT. its the actual bios you are using. GPT/MBR is just part of it.

Every bios since 2009 has been a UEFI bios. The biggest noticeable difference for most users is it has a graphical interface and knows what a mouse is for. Most of the big changes are below the surface, like it allows the addition of new features unimagined when BIOS was first introduces in the 1980's or whenever it was.

Are there other improvements over legacy other than large drive handling ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Are there other improvements over legacy other than large drive handling ?

You don't need UEFI to be able to use large drives (more than 2TB).
The limitation is relevant only to boot drive. You'd need UEFI only, if you want to boot from large capacity drive.

So there's no problem in legacy boot mode, if you're using smaller drive for windows and larger drive (above 2TB) as secondary storage drive.

Well UEFI mode allows using secure boot and fast boot. But those cause more problems than any benefit from them.
Bottom line - UEFI boot mode is kinda ... meh.

 

[Colif]

UEFI is meant to be easier to recover from boot partition problems but I can't say I have ever seen it.
Original bios was 16bit, UEFI is 64 bit. Bios had to be a specific size too so restricted ability to add new features, like support for nvme

UEFI vs BIOS
Compared with BIOS, UEFI has the following advantages:

1. UEFI enables users to handle drives that are larger than 2 TB, while the old legacy BIOS couldn't handle large storage drives.

2. UEFI supports more than 4 primary partitions with a GUID Partition Table.

3. Computers who use UEFI firmware have faster booting process than the BIOS. Various optimizations and enhancement in the UEFI can help your system boot more quickly than it could before.

4. UEFI supports secure startup, which means that the validity of the operating system can be checked to ensure that no malware tampers with the startup process.

5. UEFI supports networking function in the UEFI firmware itself, which helps remote troubleshooting and UEFI configuration.

6. UEFI has a simpler graphical user interface and also has much richer setup menus than legacy BIOS.

After reading the above, you may find that UEFI has many advantages over BIOS. And it is due to these advantages, UEFI is regarded as a successor to BIOS.

However, UEFI is not supported by all computers or devices. To use UEFI firmware, the hardware on your disk must support UEFI. Besides, your system disk needs to be a GPT disk. If not, you can convert MBR disk to GPT disk with a professional partition magic. In this way, you can boot up your computer with UEFI mode successfully.

Tip: If your computer doesn't support UEFI firmware, you need to buy new hardware that supports and includes UEFI.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/uefi-vs-bios.html

Most places around web say the same points. And the point about hardware support is the same for almost all software. Most computers made in the last 10 years have some support for UEFI, the early ones may have less than new ones. New ones are all UEFI now, and if you boot using legacy MBR then its still the UEFI running things, in a compatibility mode, emulating the BIOS features.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

Most new GPU need a UEFI bios to work.

 

[LeVzi]

Thanks for all the advice, I recently had support for an application mention to me that the application was slow because of legacy boot and not UEFI, so I decided to change it, to prove a point.

So I now have a UEFI main disk with windows, but my other 2 hard drive in the PC are both MBR, do I need to change them too ? System seems stable and running fine. Is there any need to change to GPT ? Or can I leave them as MBR, one drive is for storage the other runs games.

 

[SkyNetRising]

So I now have a UEFI main disk with windows, but my other 2 hard drive in the PC are both MBR, do I need to change them too ?
Is there any need to change to GPT ? Or can I leave them as MBR, one drive is for storage the other runs games.

Are those secondary drives larger than 2TB ?
If yes, then convert them to GPT or you can't use full capacity of those drives.
If they are smaller than 2TB, then it doesn't matter. They can be MBR or GPT.

 

[LeVzi]

Are those secondary drives larger than 2TB ?
If yes, then convert them to GPT or you can't use full capacity of those drives.
If they are smaller than 2TB, then it doesn't matter. They can be MBR or GPT.

Thank you, no they are not, one is 1TB and the other is 500Gb, so I will leave them be.