Legacy or UEFI?

[Bizman]

It's my turn to ask: I just got a Dell laptop which might be somewhat capable to run AH3. When I got it, it had Win10 on it. There were issues with video card drivers and the bios battery was dead. Long story short, the SSD went crazy and lost the Windows installation beyond repair.

Anyhow, Dell say that they don't support W10 at all for that model. It has been originally licensed for Win7. In the Bios Boot Sequence settings there's two boot list options to choose from, Legacy and UEFI, default settings reverting to Legacy. Which one should I choose before installing Win7? And why?

Thank you in advance!

[save]

It's motherboard dependent.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5831-uefi-firmware-settings-boot-inside-windows-10-a.html

[Bizman]

Umm... yes... guess I might have been a little unclear here...

The laptop mobo obviously has UEFI, there's mouse functionality and all that jazz. The question is, whether the boot option choice would affect the install of Win7 or not. Based on what I've experienced with bootable recovery and anti-virus CD's the choice during the installation is what has to be used thereafter in order to boot.

So: Is there any benefit of using UEFI boot option for Windows 7?

[Skuzzy]

If you are going Windows 7, stick with Legacy mode.  It offers more compatibility than UEFI does for 7.

Windows 8.1, and later, go UEFI.

Just remember Legacy mode is limited to a boot drive no larger than 2TB, or so.

[Bizman]

Thank you! That was the information I needed. There was a vague memory about having read it somewhere here, but I couldn't remember any more whether the UEFI option was already for 7.

The boot disk is only  128 GB, so that's not an issue.

[Skuzzy]

Thank you! That was the information I needed. There was a vague memory about having read it somewhere here, but I couldn't remember any more whether the UEFI option was already for 7.

The boot disk is only  128 GB, so that's not an issue.

It can work fine with Windows 7, but the planets have to align just right.  Laptops are more problematic for UEFI in 7, than the desktops are.

You can always try it.  You will know pretty quickly if it will work or sort of work.  The "sort of work" will not happen until after you get all the updates done, and then you find things start breaking.

[Bizman]

I already found an I/O error on the SSD. I can plug it into my desktop using a USB to SATA adapter. Both CrystalDiskInfo and SSD-life say it's "good" but Windows can't even format it although it would like to. A spare hdd has just finished installing in Legacy mode so I know it must be the SSD having invisible issues. Oh well, I'm playing on my desktop anyways and carrying it to parties is no big issue.

[MADe]

to be uefi correct, you must have all uefi based hardware. mobo, vid card, and a install device setup for a uefi install of OS.

New, to date machine, with w10, will most likely be a uefi pc.
W7 uefi can be done but its not a simple task as a w10 will be.

I just went thru this and struggled with a w7 install, ultimately I went w10.
w10 has many useless items eating cpu cycles and telemetricking like a ho.....ho. you will want to disable much on your gaming pc.

uefi, do you need it over legacy, NO. will it make a difference to AH, no.
 

Biz, get manufac software and fac set/secure erase the ssd. then see if useable. You do not format ssd's with windows really?????. very bad for them. you might see if there is a FW update for it, a FW update might reset the ssd as well. luck

[Chalenge]

Bizman, I had a similar issue with an SSD, but found the Macrium Reflect would clone my boot drive even though Windows was having trouble with it. Afterwards it was fine.

[Bizman]

Thank you all, I've already replaced the 120 GB SSD with a used 500 GB HDD, installed 7 in legacy mode and now trying to get it to install the update pack.

I'll see what can be done with the SSD, the first thing to do would be wiping it clean with DBAN. As for formatting in Windows, I usually only do it to spare partitions. During installation I usually just delete all partitions and let the installation process do the formatting. If the disk is very big, I may consider a smaller partition for Windows and format the rest in Disk Management after all is set and done.