updating my BIOS to support UEFI , I need to clean install W/10

-So I had an issue with my PC, "personalised settings (not responding)".
I found out its to do with my RAM and that updating "motherboard BIOS (update) changes how the hardware and memory addressing space is accessed, this has a big influence on Windows"

.-I spoke to MSI forums and the person said I had to "(flash) update BIOS for my Motherboard to fully support the Windows 8/10 UEFI features" . ...as apparently now my current W/10 was installed in 'Legacy' mode
But also "for UEFI to work you must do a clean install and the BIOS options must be set to have Windows 8 mode / Windows 10 enabled"

-You can read more about what he says here> Apparently my MSI motherboard is not compatable with Windows creators update? He is called 'electrostingz' so you can just read his comments.

I just wanted to get 2nd opinion and confirm on other forums, such as here, that I would need to do this; clean reinstall Windows and all my games/apps etc.

I have been instructed to:
1-Flash BIOS
2-Check BIOS settings, enable Windows 8/10, disable Windows 7.
3-Save&Exit
4-Enter BIOS check Boot options, are they showing UEFI
5-Boot from Install device, DVD or flash drive. (I don't think your current Windows will boot)

My Motherboard: B75MA-E33. I currently have v1.1 and I need to upgrade to 1.7

Thank You

NavyLCDR said:

You can try this:
Convert Windows 10 from Legacy BIOS to UEFI without Data Loss Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
MBR2GPT | Microsoft Docs

We highly recommend you make a backup image of at least your Windows partition before starting any of this. Macrium Reflect is highly recommended here:
Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything

Also a screenshot of disk management will help us help you further:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials

Hi

So the MBR2GPT method, if I have read and watched correctly...all I need to do is open cmd and type "mbr2gpt /convert /allowfullOS "..and thats it? Just typing 'mbr2gpt /convert /allowfullOS' will auto update my BIOS and I wont need to 'flash' my Motherboard with the latest version and reinstall Windows/softwares again?
The W/10 forum tut does not mention about 'microsoft deployment toolkit' like the video does..?

To be honest I have been thinking about having a clean install, as I have had PC for a number of years, and would like it nice and clean with only some softwares installed. So I probably will go with flashing BIOS/motherboard and reinstall W/10 and all softwares.

I am still going to backup photos, documents, projects etc. I am writing a list of the softwares I need to re-install . I have macrium so will create an image...IF something does wrong I can change back to Legacy mode in BIOS to Windows 7.

mbr2gpt will not flash your bios nor affect any of it's settings. It is hard drive conversion only. The BIOS must be flashed and "converted" separately using whatever method the manufacturer provides.

Now would be an excellent time to upgrade to an SSD

I'd do a flash and separate clean reinstall - especially if you wanted to tidy up anyway.

The conversion tool is new and has had problems reported with it. mbr2gpt will change you disk layout but you still need to change your firmware to boot from EFI loader. If you just run that your system will definitely not restart.

Just make sure you have a backup and something you can boot from and give it a go if you want.

There is generally no particular benefit to be gained from converting to EFI. It makes managing multiboot systems easier (usually) but doesn't have any particular performance benefit either way.

lx07 said:

I'd do a flash and separate clean reinstall - especially if you wanted to tidy up anyway.

The conversion tool is new and has had problems reported with it. mbr2gpt will change you disk layout but you still need to change your firmware to boot from EFI loader. If you just run that your system will definitely not restart.

Just make sure you have a backup and something you can boot from and give it a go if you want.

There is generally no particular benefit to be gained from converting to EFI. It makes managing multiboot systems easier (usually) but doesn't have any particular performance benefit either way.

Ye I think I will just flash and reinstall :)

Hopefully all goes well and easy for me

C0zzie said:

I thought I had to reinstall Windows 10 when the new UEFI feature is enabled? It says on the 'Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside W10 totorial' that "This only applies if Windows 10 was installed using UEFI, not legacy BIOS", which is what my version is now

You do not need to fully re-install Windows. You do need to convert your hard drive to the format that supports UEFI booting. Most of the free methods to do that won't do it if there is an active installation of Windows on the hard drive. MBR2GPT is an exception to that. They say you have to re-install Windows because for most methods of converting the hard drive Windows has to be removed from the hard drive. However, backup and restore is the option most of us have used in the past so we don't re-install Windows - we restore our Windows from a backup.

C0zzie said:

Oh, so mbr2gpt will just change Legacy to UEFI. Well thats what flashing my BIOS will do as well, it will update to latest version and also allow for UEFI...which is what mbr2gpt does.

What MBR2GPT will do is convert the hard drive to the format that supports UEFI booting. It will not change your computer from legacy BIOS mode to UEFI mode. That is accomplished by changing the boot mode setting in "BIOS". The reason I put "BIOS" in quotes, is because it is really called UEFI firmware in a computer that can boot in UEFI mode. But for simplicity sake, we'll just keep using BIOS

C0zzie said:

But if I use mbr2gpt to update to UEFI, flashing BIOS will just update as normal and I wont need to reinstall?

That should be true. Flashing the BIOS will update the BIOS only. When you switch to UEFI booting in the BIOS setting, MBR2GPT converts the hard drive to be able to boot from BIOS.

C0zzie said:

I might be making this extra confusing. Will most likely just flash and reinstall

What makes you say I need to upgrade to SSD ?

Moving from running Windows from a hard disk drive to an SSD is the single biggest upgrade you can do to your computer to see the biggest increase in performance. Since you are seriously considering making changes to the BIOS and doing a clean install of Windows 10, that would be the perfect time to install the SSD. This is how it would work:

1. Flash the BIOS update.
2. Disconnect the existing HDD, leave it disconnected, install the SSD.
3. Boot the computer into "BIOS" setup (it's really UEFI firmware). Make all the settings changes you need to. You will want to enable UEFI booting, and make sure the SATA disk controller is set to AHCI mode. You might not be able to move the SSD to the top of the boot order yet because the required files for UEFI booting are not installed on it yet.
4. Boot the computer from a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive or DVD and install Windows 10 onto the blank SSD which show now install in the format supporting UEFI.
5. After Windows is installed you might need to go back into "BIOS" setup and move the SSD (Windows Boot Manager) to the top of the boot order.
6. Now reconnect your HDD as a secondary storage drive. There are several ways you can use to clean up the drive and make it just a single storage space for data files that you want to keep that will survive a crash of Windows should it occur. It will also give you a place to make backup images of your SSD that can be easily restored if something happens to the SSD or the Windows installed on it.

Don't be concerned about getting an SSD large enough to hold all your data files like photos, movies, and music. You can use your old HDD for that. Most people find a 256 GB SSD to be about right. Some get by just fine with a 128 GB SSD. I have a 512 GB SSD in my main laptop computer just because I like to have extra space for multiple Windows installations to play around with. Again, your only running Windows and your programs from the SSD - keep your data files on the HDD.

As @lx07 stated, changing the boot mode from legacy BIOS to UEFI, by itself, won't give you a noticeable improvement in performance.

Ye I cant boot in UEFI mode so flashing the BIOS with the new update should allow this (and hopefully fix my issue). And, as you probably know, I need to reinstall Windows in UEFI mode. Although do you think I can try using this method? How to Access the BIOS on a Windows 10 PC



You both said changing to UEFI mode wont have a big performance difference, but as my issue was with RAM, MSI forums said to update anyway as "motherboard BIOS (update) changes how the hardware and memory addressing space is accessed, this has a big influence on Windows"... so it should hopefully resolve my issue.

So if I decide to buy an SSD (I presume there are enough cables/connections for both SSD and HDD), once I installed Windows on SSD and then reconnect the HDD, how does the 'booting' work? As I have not wiped hdd yet, wont my PC read that everything (including old legacy Windows) is on my HDD still? Wont all my files load on my PC/desktop as HDD is connected?

I was going to leave the SSD a few months ago, as someone told me, but as I most likely clean install, now it a good chance like you said to set it up.