UEFI/GPT Question

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zt3

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Aug 3, 2012
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Hi guys,

So... i was just surfing some sites and i came to a UEFI tutorial and in that tutorial it said to open "msinfo32" and check the "BIOS Mode" to see the actual system mode.

I did that and for my surprise it says "Legacy". I then suppose that i'm using a MBR partition and not using UEFI at all. I just checked BIOS and Secure Boot is also Disabled.

So i searched for more info but there's something that i don't get understand.

Is it really need to format the USB stick in FAT32? I mean, if i do that Windows still going to install in NTFS or what? I'm really confused right now.

What do i need to do in order to install in UEFI/GPT mode? I saw this:

V4qlltY.png


But as i said, i'm confused about the FAT32 part.
 
Not all motherboards can properly boot an NTFS-formatted USB stick in UEFI mode. Thus FAT32 is used.

It's just the filesystem on the install USB and has no relevance to the filesystem placed on the drive you install the OS to. Windows will happily install from FAT32 USB sticks, there is absolutely no problem with this at all whatsoever.
 
Thanks for the info!

So i just need to follow that. What about the Secure boot, it needs to be enabled, right? I read that Fast Boot also needs to be enabled, is that true?

And what about the "Where do you want to install Windows?" part? This:

pMfo3Tf.png


In the past i always deleted the partitions and clicked next on the unallocated space. Do we need to click on "New" or Windows will automatically create the 4 partitions by doing that?
 
zt3 said:
So i just need to follow that. What about the Secure boot, it needs to be enabled, right? I read that Fast Boot also needs to be enabled, is that true?
Click to expand...
Secure Boot does not need to be enabled to boot from GPT. Fast Boot does not need to be enabled to boot from GPT

The only thing you need to do is make sure you are booting as UEFI. When you select the boot menu the UEFI mode will usually be listed as such, such as "UEFI USB" or something. Some motherboards also have a toggle to switch between legacy and UEFI that you need to change before booting to the install media.
In the past i always deleted the partitions and clicked next on the unallocated space. Do we need to click on "New" or Windows will automatically create the 4 partitions by doing that?
Click to expand...
You want to press shift + F10 at the "where to install" screen. Run diskpart, type select disk 0 then type clean. That will wipe out MBR and all data on the drive. Then back on the partition screen just click unallocated space and press next.
 
You can also just click Next. As the disk is unallocated space, Windows will set it up for BIOS if it's in BIOS mode or UEFI if it's in UEFI mode.
 
zt3 said:
Thank you!

No harm by doing the diskpart stuff on a SSD?
Click to expand...
No because diskpart is how you manage the file system on Windows.

If the drive is brand new, you don't need to use diskpart. You would only run that command if you have previously installed a file system. Deleting the volumes is not enough if you want to switch from MBR to GPT.
 
So, if i don't use the diskpart i'll get an error when trying to hit next i guess.

I was afraid that using those commands would hurt the sdd life or something.
 
Last edited:
The only diskpart command that can physically harm a media is the "hammer nails through drive" command which I think they deprecated out a while back.
 
zt3 said:
Hi guys,

So... i was just surfing some sites and i came to a UEFI tutorial and in that tutorial it said to open "msinfo32" and check the "BIOS Mode" to see the actual system mode.

I did that and for my surprise it says "Legacy". I then suppose that i'm using a MBR partition and not using UEFI at all. I just checked BIOS and Secure Boot is also Disabled.
Click to expand...

OK, so I ran msinfo32 and I expected to see the same output, because I'm running Windows in a BIOS/MBR environment. I didn't see that, but I did see the normal BIOS information. I even did a search on "legacy," which came up with no matches.

So what did I do wrong?
 
SuperSubZero said:
The only diskpart command that can physically harm a media is the "hammer nails through drive" command which I think they deprecated out a while back.
Click to expand...

In some places users report that writing zeros to the SSD affects the SSD lifetime, that's why i'm concerned about that diskpart stuff. My real doubt was if i really needed to do that, which apparently i do according to bigdogchris, but i guess i'll find out when i try it, i'm just waiting for Windows 10 to come out and then i can make the changes.

x509 said:
OK, so I ran msinfo32 and I expected to see the same output, because I'm running Windows in a BIOS/MBR environment. I didn't see that, but I did see the normal BIOS information. I even did a search on "legacy," which came up with no matches.

So what did I do wrong?
Click to expand...

Don't you a BIOS MODE line?

swWhdgg.png
 
zt3 said:
In some places users report that writing zeros to the SSD affects the SSD lifetime, that's why i'm concerned about that diskpart stuff. My real doubt was if i really needed to do that, which apparently i do according to bigdogchris, but i guess i'll find out when i try it, i'm just waiting for Windows 10 to come out and then i can make the changes.



Don't you a BIOS MODE line?

swWhdgg.png
Click to expand...

Actually I don't have that BIOS mode line. I double-checked, and that line is simply not there in my msinfo32 display. :confused:
 
SuperSubZero said:
There are beliefs in some circles that every single bit written to an SSD is like chain smoking 500 cigarettes and substantially drops the lifetime of the drive.

http://techreport.com/review/26058/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-data-retention-after-600tb

Not really.
Click to expand...

Writing zeros to an SSD is dumb and unnecessary. It defeats the safety mechanisms SSDs have for cycling and preserving 'fresh' cells for use. I wouldn't do it. It gives you nothing and spends 1 write cycle of the 1500 - 5000 cycles your drive has available, depending on model.
 
When hunting around for info on GPT/MBR a month or two ago, I found it very difficult to find current information. Nearly everything was dated 3 years ago and maintained that UEFI had to be FAT32.
That's no longer the case. When you do a clean install with UEFI enabled on your PC (it's sometimes called "Enable Windows 8/10 Features") it'll install using GPT and NTFS.
 
Domingo said:
When hunting around for info on GPT/MBR a month or two ago, I found it very difficult to find current information. Nearly everything was dated 3 years ago and maintained that UEFI had to be FAT32.
That's no longer the case. When you do a clean install with UEFI enabled on your PC (it's sometimes called "Enable Windows 8/10 Features") it'll install using GPT and NTFS.
Click to expand...

The FAT32 applies only to the USB thumb drive. It has to have a small FAT32 partition for a boot sector.
 
Just an update to this.

Today i clean installed Windows 10 and i didn't need to do the diskpart stuff.

Created a USB Stick with Rufus tool with the settings i posted above (picture). I just had to delete all the partitions and when only the unallocated space was there i clicked "New" then "Apply", 3 partitions were created.

Everything is good now, msinfo32 reports UEFI and disks manager also reports GPT partition. Clean the volumes is indeed the necessary, no need to use diskpart.
 
zt3 said:
Just an update to this.

Today i clean installed Windows 10 and i didn't need to do the diskpart stuff.

Created a USB Stick with Rufus tool with the settings i posted above (picture). I just had to delete all the partitions and when only the unallocated space was there i clicked "New" then "Apply", 3 partitions were created.

Everything is good now, msinfo32 reports UEFI and disks manager also reports GPT partition. Clean the volumes is indeed the necessary, no need to use diskpart.
Click to expand...

You don't even need the Rufus tool. The official Microsoft tools will download and write the ISO properly for EFI boot and enable GPT partition during setup.
 
itschop said:
You don't even need the Rufus tool. The official Microsoft tools will download and write the ISO properly for EFI boot and enable GPT partition during setup.
Click to expand...

Which Microsoft tool you talking about?

I know they just released one for WIn 10 but the previous always formatted NTFS.

I don't remember the name of it but I have to use some Linux program to get an iso installed on a USB stick formatted Fat32.

The Win thing wont do it.

Ah yes... LinuxLive USB Creator .

I tried in vain to use the Microsoft stuff to create an ISO that could be installed UEFI and no go...
 
Last edited:
itschop said:
You don't even need the Rufus tool. The official Microsoft tools will download and write the ISO properly for EFI boot and enable GPT partition during setup.
Click to expand...

Rufus can create the USB thumb drive a lot faster than the Microsoft tool can. If you are creating them often, it will save a lot of time.
 
itschop said:
You don't even need the Rufus tool. The official Microsoft tools will download and write the ISO properly for EFI boot and enable GPT partition during setup.
Click to expand...

I previously had used that tool from Microsoft - this one - and that was the reason why i had a Legacy/MBR system.

Rufus is way better anyway.
 
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