UEFI v legacy

Diggsy · 22 Aug 2020 at 14:56

Folks, I haven’t upgraded my system in a very long time. I’m running an Abit IP35 Pro with a Q6600 @ 3.6.

I have a Z77-D3H with an i5 3570k, along with a 970 to upgrade it a little.

What I have noticed is that my old system uses ‘legacy’, whereas the new stuff supports ‘UEFI’.

My question is simple really, although it’s 2 parts;

1. is there really a benefit to using UEFI? I don’t have a HDD larger than 1tb.

2. if so, is there a way that I can upgrade without doing a fresh install? I know it’s not ideal, but I just want to know if it can be done. I’m backing up my data and will do a fresh install at some point, but hoped to be able to quickly move from older to newer in the interim...

Thanks a lot

heatonpkmassive · 22 Aug 2020 at 15:52

Does the new stuff not have the option to use legacy? You could use that initially.

Diggsy · 22 Aug 2020 at 16:47

heatonpkmassive said:
Does the new stuff not have the option to use legacy? You could use that initially.

I’m pretty sure it does, so that’ll be an option. Thanks

heatonpkmassive · 22 Aug 2020 at 17:02

You could do that to migrate to the new board and chip and then look at what you have to do with the software and BIOS in order to run the UEFI setup if you were still interested in that, was what I was thinking.

james.miller · 22 Aug 2020 at 17:07

You can boot in legacy mode, yes.

You can always boot up with the new hardware and see what happens. I would be ready for a fresh install though.

Diggsy · 22 Aug 2020 at 17:21

Thanks to you both. I’ll give it a go with the new stuff in legacy mode and see what happens. Assuming it works, I’ll look into converting the disc to work with UEFI. Looks like it can be done without losing any data.