UEFI or Legacy?

[StreamingGames]

So I have an MSI z170a Gaming m7 and Im installing Windows 7. Im currious what are the advantages AND disadvantages of UEFI? In a manual I was reading it said that UEFI and Legacy supported Optical Drives but UEFI DID NOT support USB Storage Device and Legacy did. Why is that? What other advantages AND disadvantages are there between the two? Also, does one require more work or installations than the other? I only have the OS disk, Mobo disk, and GPU disk so I dont have extra things to install if needed. Thanks to everyone who helps out!

 

[Tanyac]

I think you're going to have to do some reading. There is little benefit to just repeating what is already out thre on the web. Here are a couple of good posts I found...

http://superuser.com/questions/496026/what-is-the-difference-in-boot-with-bios-and-boot-with-uefi/501867#501867

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-UEFI-and-Legacy-Mode-which-we-need-to-choose-while-installing-the-OS

http://www.uefi.org/faq

https://www.maketecheasier.com/differences-between-uefi-and-bios/

hth

 

[StreamingGames]

Ive read most of those. I understand that UEFI boots everything quicker, or at least has the potential to, but no one talks about any disadvantages it has or if it requires more things for installation. I was hoping someone who has used both could tell me. Especially about the part where an online manual said UEFI doesnt support USB Storage devices.. that seems weird..

 

[seeingeyegod]

UEFI won't require anything additional to be installed, someone correct me if I'm wrong but your OS doesn't care whether you booted via UEFI or BIOS. I'm not sure where you read it doesn't support USB storage... if so that would only relate to how you are connecting to your initial boot drive, not anything once you are in your OS. No one would want to boot off of a USB connected drive anyway unless just temporarily to test something out or during troubleshooting. Definitely wouldn't want it to be the way you permanently boot your OS, it would be a bottleneck.

 

[Tanyac]

@seeingeyegod - Essentially you are correct. The only real OS impact is if you use secure boot or use M.2 drives.

All of my PCs (I have 8 here at home), are now all UEFI. I have no problems booting off USB storage on any of them. These days optical drives are old tech. I do all of my OS installs via USB, but you certainly wouldn't boot off USB for regular use.

With some SSDs (like the Samsung SM951 and other M.2 drives), you will need a UEFI BIOS. I had to upgrade one motherboard just for that reason. The legacy BIOS did not support M.2 drives (Either AHCI or NVMe).

hth
Tanya