Solved UEFI/Legacy

james1st

Member
Member
Messages
17
Location
Beer Sheva, Israel
I am not a happy camper with Windows 8.
I am confused with the Legacy and the UEFI boot methods. The reason I am confused I think, is because I read to darn much on the Internet. One bit of confusion is with respect to changing from UEFI to Legacy. It would appear from some comments that if I do that, Windows 8 won't boot anymore. I would have to change back to UEFI for indows 8 to boot. I also read that changing back to UEFI could be a major problem when trying to access the BIOS. No, I am confused. My ultimate goal is to set my laptop up to dual boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu. Like I have been doing for the last multiple years with XP and Windows 7.
Helpful comments would certainly be appreciated.

]Dell Inspiron 5721
Windows 8
Intel i7 @ 1.9 GHz
BIOS Version – Dell Inc. A06 2/22/2013
SMBIOS – 2.7
BIOS Mode – UEFI
Secure Boot State – On
Memory – 8 GB[/QUOTE]
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 17r
    CPU
    Intel Core I7
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon
    Browser
    Firefox, Chrome, I.E.,
    Antivirus
    McAfee
I don't quite understand what UEFI is, it is firmware, or is it Microsoft's new Boot GUI? I've set my systems to boot Legacy mode, and since I did that, I have no trouble getting into Safe Mode.

Does UEFI access your BIOS as well? That's what I'm worried about. The idea of not being able to access the BIOS from outside Windows 8 makes me itch. I think the Legacy Menu may allow that though - You can set it to Legacy, and if you can't access the Bios, then you can switch it back. I forget the command lines to set it, but they are in a tutorial here. It's BCDedit.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
I'm not sure why you think you need to go back to Legacy boot, unless you're trying to boot something really really really old... Ubuntu supports UEFI booting, so i'm not really sure why you are so concerned.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

You can also configure the Windows 8 boot manager to boot Ubuntu.

LinuxBSDos.comDual-boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 on UEFI hardware - LinuxBSDos.com

Still, the reason you are confused is because

a) "Information", particularly information about Linux never dies. It stays out there, cluttering up google searches long after it's no longer useful. The Linux community really needs to get better about removing old content and/or archiving it, marking it obsolete, or something... Versions of Linux, and various packages evolve.. and the way they are configured changes, and the configuration options change, and the feature sets change over time.. Information that was true 6 months ago may not be true now, or may be partially true, or true but.. it should be done another way.

b) Many people "Helpfully" post incorrect, or incomplete, or even just bizarrely done information. As in "this worked for me", and it may have.. but only because of their specific configuration, and you spend tons of time trying to make something work only to find out it doesn't apply to you. Or, the person did it the most backward way possible.. it may work, but just barely.

Lots of people experiment, and write up their experiments.. and they often draw incorrect conclusions. You simply cannot rely on most of this information to be accurate, relevant, or even safe in most cases.

Your problem is not Windows 8, your problem is that there's just so much crappy information out there. You have a Dell motherboard, and Dell's are not notorious for their firmware features.. they tend to have limited options.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    CPU
    Intel i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z77X-UD4 TH
    Memory
    16GB DDR3 1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia GTX 650
    Sound Card
    Onboard Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Auria 27" IPS + 2x Samsung 23"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440 + 2x 2048x1152
    Hard Drives
    Corsair m4 256GB, 2 WD 2TB drives
    Case
    Antec SOLO II
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
    Mouse
    Logitech MX
Like the Asus MB in my HP system, an M2N NodusN... Absolutely NO configurations like I have in my regular M2N board. But at least Dells usually have plenty of configurable BIOS options. But where it says BIOS - UEFI, that means he can't get into it other than UEFI? Can that be switched?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Many thanks for the replies, especially to Mystere. Very good input and I agree with you totally about the out-dated information.
Even though I have looked at the Linux sites I had not seen anything relative to booting Ubuntu with UEFI. I am most grateful to you for putting me on to this link. I will study this some more and hopefully get over my peeve with Ms Windows 8. I do think it has some super things and I really, really don't want to step back to Windows 7.
I will mark this thread as solved and again, thanks everybody.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 17r
    CPU
    Intel Core I7
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon
    Browser
    Firefox, Chrome, I.E.,
    Antivirus
    McAfee
Back
Top