Reformat to use Secure Boot?

[PizzaOfHut]

'ey guys.

I just upgraded from an Intel e5300 on an Asus P5Q-SE mainboard to a Core i5-4670k on an Asus z87-PLUS. The system disk in the old setup was running Windows 8, which was not partitioned for UEFI mode, for obvious reasons. With the new setup, I pretty much just dumped my HDD, unmodified, into the new mainboard, and after curing some hiccups unrelated to the HDD, the system now works perfectly.

However, my big reason for getting Windows 8 was to take advantage of Secure Boot. I've heard that for Secure Boot to work properly, you need an UEFI record in the boot sector of your disk. That said, my mainboard config swears that Secure Boot is active, even though it correctly recognizes that my HDD's boot sector contains an old style MBR and not a UEFI partition.

What do you guys think? Is my board being honest with me, or should I reformat as a UEFI partition if I want to fully utilize Secure Boot?

 

[dodger46]

'ey guys.

I just upgraded from an Intel e5300 on an Asus P5Q-SE mainboard to a Core i5-4670k on an Asus z87-PLUS. The system disk in the old setup was running Windows 8, which was not partitioned for UEFI mode, for obvious reasons. With the new setup, I pretty much just dumped my HDD, unmodified, into the new mainboard, and after curing some hiccups unrelated to the HDD, the system now works perfectly.

However, my big reason for getting Windows 8 was to take advantage of Secure Boot. I've heard that for Secure Boot to work properly, you need an UEFI record in the boot sector of your disk. That said, my mainboard config swears that Secure Boot is active, even though it correctly recognizes that my HDD's boot sector contains an old style MBR and not a UEFI partition.

What do you guys think? Is my board being honest with me, or should I reformat as a UEFI partition if I want to fully utilize Secure Boot?

Far as I know if you have a 350Mb System Reserved Partition on your Drive it will be sufficient for Boot requirements. If not, the correct way to ensure it is created is to install Windows to Unallocated Space, i.e. no partitions.
Use Disk Manager to check for the System Reserved Partition.

 

[PizzaOfHut]

What exactly is a System Reserved Partition? Disk Manager says all my disk space is allocated to the system partition, save for 9 MB of unallocated space.

 

[dodger46]

What exactly is a System Reserved Partition? Disk Manager says all my disk space is allocated to the system partition, save for 9 MB of unallocated space.

If you don't have one it means Windows was installed to a Partitioned disk. Should appear thus:-

Not sure where you'll find yours, though I believe that if you had more than one disk installed during installation it will be found on the 2nd disk. It is used thus:-
http://4sysops.com/archives/what-is-the-system-reserved-partition/
No reference to Secure Boot, but certainly has a role to play in the Boot Process.