Boot UEFI or Legacy ---- tips

[Big_Dave]

If your PC or laptop supports UEFI and legacy mode then the following tips may help you.

Legacy enabled:

If the bios setting is legacy enabled then hard drives and USB devices will normally boot. 

If you are using two independent hard drives that are not connected by boot manager then the UEFI boot hard drive will always boot first before the legacy hard drive unless the bios allows you to change the boot priority.

Legacy disabled (UEFI mode):

If the bios setting is legacy disabled then only UEFI devices will boot.  You may run into no hard drive selection menu, no boot option menu or Boot Device not Found followed by a message Hard Disk (3f0).

USB flash drives boot considerations:

If you wish to boot up a USB flash device using Windows 7 repair, Windows 8 repair, Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation media then be sure to create the flash drive formatted as FAT32.  You may notice a bootable flash drive showing twice in the boot menu, one marked UEFI and one not marked UEFI.  Both will boot up.

The popular MS Windows 7 USB WIndows installation media creation tool will create a NTFS flash drive using a Windows 7/8 iso file in NTFS format which is not bootable in UEFI mode. It works fine in legacy mode.  To get around the NTFS issue, create the flash drive in NTFS then copy the contents to your hard drive, quick format the flash drive to FAT32 and then copy back the contents back to the hard drive.  There are other known methods to do the above but this method is very simple.

[srm2888]

Thank you for this sir.  

I have legacy enabled and I still can't boot from the DVD ROM even when I press f(9).  I have secure boot turned off.  Anyone know what the problem is?  

[Big_Dave]

Hi srm2888,

Please post the HP product number for your PC.

Did you also disable fast boot in the bios?

Try the DVD on another PC to make sure that it will boot up.  What is on the DVD?

What happens when you try to boot the DVD?

[dlbass93]

The OP really cleared up the difference for me, but I'm still having troubles.

I have

• HP ENVY TouchSmart m7-j010dx Notebook PC

I'm trying to dual boot Elementary OS (a form of Ubuntu).

I have two HDD's installed.

I don't want to make any changes to the Windows HDD.

By enabling Legacy Mode, I was able to install Elementary OS on the second drive. I installed Grub on the second drive as well, leaving the main drive untouched. I have tried various methods to make 'boot-repair' work, but it always fails.

I am asking for help here because I think I can get everything to work if I can only install Elementary without enabling Legacy Mode. So, the question is, how do you get UEFI to allow CD/DVD or secondary HDD booting, without being in Legacy Mode?

Thanks for you time!

[LAOKSYSMGR]

If when the computer is new and it cannot be switched to legacy boot mode then I will be returning 4 new machines we just got. They are Z220 SFF units that I must be able to reimage with my own windows 7 pro system image using a 16 bit boot utility and if this cannot be accomplished then the computers are of no use to me. UEFI is not supposed to be mandated.

[Sparkles1]

HI LAOKSYSMGR: 

Thank you for your inqiury.

I am sorry, but to get your issue more exposure I would suggest posting it in the commercial forums since this is a commercial product . You can do this at http://h30499.www3.hp.com/hpeb/ .

They will be able to assist you better.

I hope this helps.

[AgusMancoe]

i have a HP Sleekbook 14-b035tx which came with a windows 8 OS installed already. due to some reasons, i tried to shift it back to windows 7. After many unsuccessful tries, i finally managed to install windows 7 by changing my boot sequence to Legacy Boot.
later on, due to lack of drivers for win 7, i installed, rather upgraded to win 8 which was running on legacy boot (using MBR if im not wrong). now, i want to install a fresh copy of win 8 with UEFI but the problem is when i change my boot sequence to disable legacy boot, then during installation of win 8, i cannot see my HDD :(... im using a flash drive to install win 8 which is already in UEFI (i used diskpart for that).
also, when i use legacy boot and try to install windows, then the HDD appears and when i format the HDD and create new partitions, it creates 3 partitions (System, MSR, Reserved) and the fourth one for OS. i tried installing the windows like this but after install, when i change the boot sequence to UEFI again, it fails to boot

now, i want to install windows to UEFI... and i really need help with this please :(... i hope i have explained the scenario... if anyone would like to ask anything, please do :(... as i really need to get this away... and also, i'd like to ask that how can i check if my HDD has been changed from MBR to GTP

[Big_Dave]

@AgusMancoe 

Read your other post.

[KayRader2012]

ok  my laptop crashed i tried rebooting it but it makes a clicking sound and says no hard drive found but it was running fine just a few hours ago and its only a few months old i'm really freaked out its my main pc for school and work and im praying that my data is not lost cause it would be seriously hard to get again please help.

Bios version: A10

Product name: insperion 3721

service tag: FZ26sx1

asset tag: none

Cpu type: intel (R) core(tm) i3-3327u cpu

cpu speed: 1.90ghz

cpu id: 306A9

Cpu cache:

L1 cache 0032 kb

L2 cache 0256 kb

L3 cache 3072 kb

Fixed HDD (4073GB)

SATA ODD: HL-DT-ST DVD+/-RW GU70N

AC Adapter type: not detected

Total memory: 4096MB

System Memory 1600MHz

[LAOKSYSMGR]

KayRader2012

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the sounds you are describing sound like there may have been a hard disk failure. The sound you described the clicking sound, is most likely the drive trying to do a forward seek and being unable to locate track 0.

This is uncommon with a machine so new but not impossilble. My suggestion is to take the unit to your closest authorized repair facility and ask them to remove the drive and plug it into an existing computer to see if they can recover your data easily. Otherwise it is most likely that the data has been lost. If it is on the other hand a controller failure inside the computer then the chances are good you will be able to recover the data. In any case make sure it is an Authorized repair facility so that in the event you get the data back they can repair or replace the computer under warranty and get your data copied back onto the computer.