Legacy and UEFI are the two BIOS settings on a computer. For various reasons, we should prefer UEFI. Let’s see what the main reasons are…
- The UEFI is the advanced version of BIOS
- It can handle data drivers larger than 2.2 TB
- We can speed up the boot time with UEFI
- Security enhanced. So that unauthorized access will not get a chance.
Because of all these advantages, you may want to change your BIOS settings from legacy to UEFI. Today, you can find how to change legacy to UEFI in three simple steps on this page.
When you are looking for Windows OS installation, whether it is 10 or 11, you’ll get an error while installing the OS on your PC using the flash drive. And Microsoft won’t let you upgrade your PC to Windows 11 if you don’t have secure boot enabled on your PC.
Before you can change your BIOS to UEFI, you need to be sure that your PC is running with the traditional BIOS.
- Useful Read: How to find the motherboard model on your computer?
- Useful Read: Motherboard vs CPU: What’s the difference?
How do you check the BIOS mode on a PC?
Just follow the steps to find what types of BIOS mode your PC is running with.
- Type ‘RUN’ on the search bar and click ‘Enter.’ The RUN tab will pop up.
- There you need to type ‘msinfo32.exe’ and click ‘ Enter.’ The system information tab will open.
- Under ‘BIOS mode’ you can find your motherboard BIOS technology.
From the system information of a PC, we can conclude that your PC is running with the Legacy or UEFI mode. The PC that I’m discussing has a legacy setup.
We have another way to prove whether the computer is running with legacy or UEFI firmware.
- Use the key Win + S to open the search bar or you can move your cursor to the search bar and click on it.
- Type ‘disk management’ and then click enter. The disk management page will show like this.
- Right-click on the disk which has the Windows OS on it. The options will appear like this.
- Click on properties. The disk properties page will open.
- Under the ‘volume’ section, you can find MBR (Master Boot Record). This means the Windows operating system is running in legacy mode.
When you find the BIOS mode is Legacy in the system information, then the Windows OS installed disk must be in MBR partition type. If the BIOS mode is UEFI, then the disk partition type is in GPT (GUID Partition Table).
Now you know how to find what type of BIOS is running on a computer. Remember, you should only consider the Windows OS-installed disk if you are looking for the partition type. The other disks on a computer might have GPT or MBR partition types.
The UEFI setup (the latest and most efficient) is better compared to the legacy. So that we can find out how to change the BIOS mode from legacy to UEFI. Here is the step-by-step process to do it.
- First, you need to open the command prompt on your PC. Type ‘cmd’ on the search bar and press enter. The command prompt will open and it looks like this.
- Type “mbr2gpt.exe /convert /allowfullos” and then press enter
- After a few minutes, the result will display like this “Before the new system can boot properly you need to switch the firmware to boot to UEFI mode”. You can ignore this if you’ve already enabled UEFI mode or the automatic mode of BIOS on your PC.
After you get this result, you can check the updated BIOS version on your PC by following the above steps.
If you are not sure whether you enable or disable UEFI mode on your PC, follow the 3 steps to set up or confirm UEFI mode.
Note: If your motherboard doesn’t support the latest UEFI technology, then you can’t find and use this feature.
Steps to Change Legacy to UEFI
1. Enter BIOS on your PC
If you are using your PC now, close all the running apps and shut down your PC completely (Hibernate and Sleep modes are not recommended).
When you press the power button on your PC, the BIOS will activate. After completing the POST process, your motherboard model will display then immediately you need to press the BIOS key repeatedly.
The BIOS accessing key is varied from one PC to another. The most common BIOS keys are F1, F10, F12, Del, and Esc.
By default, the BIOS screen is in blue. But it depends on the motherboard. The latest gaming motherboards like ASUS, MSI, etc have a colorful BIOS interface. Do you know why BIOS is important to a computer?
2. Select UEFI
The mouse gestures will not work during this process. You need to use the arrow keys to select the task and ‘+ & -’ to change the priority.
In the BIOS setup, you’ll find different options in the menu. Among them, go to the ‘Advanced’ section. There you can find an option to choose your UEFI or legacy mode.
Here I choose the ‘Modern ordering’ rather than the ‘Legacy ordering’ or outdated BIOS. Be careful, if you make any mistake in these ‘Advanced’ settings, it will affect your PC performance.
3. Save and Exit
The next thing you need to do is save your settings before getting out of the BIOS setup. The function key ‘F10’ is used to save and exit the settings.
When you press the F10 button, the pop-up will appear for authorization. The changes that you’ve made will only apply to your PC when you select ‘Yes.’ If you don’t save, your PC will choose the previous settings for action.
However, after pressing F10, your PC will save the boot options from legacy to UEFI. After that, the PC restarts normally.
If you do everything right, you can get the result with the updated BIOS version (UEFI) in the system information. And the disk partition type from MBR To GPT.
Feel free to join the discussion with your queries in the comment section. I’m happy to solve them. Also, read how to reset the BIOS on your PC.