6/23/2017 WhatisthelegacymodeinBIOS?WhatisthedifferencebetweenlegacyandUEFI?Isitsafetouselegacymode?

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UEFI(UnifiedExtensibleFirmwareInterface) BIOS OperatingSystems

RelatedQuestions
What is the legacy mode in BIOS? What is the dierence
between legacy and UEFI? Is it safe to use legacy mode? WhatisthedifferencebetweenUEFIandLegacy
Modewhichweneedtochoosewhileinstallingthe
OS?

4Answers IsitpossibletochangeBIOSmodefromLegacyto
UEFI?
Shrirang Warhadkar, not a lot but I know a little of it
AnsweredSep1,2016 HowdoIfindoutifmyWindowshasbootedwith
BIOSlegacyorUEFI?
O course it is safe to use Legacy Mode, it was at the inception of the term called BIOS.
WhatisthedifferencebetweenUEFIbootingand
Now lets talk about the dierence, Conversation between Legacy and UEFI, BIOSbooting?

Legacy: Im senior than you, you were not there when it all started, I started executing from IswitchedtheBIOSfromUEFItoLegacyonanAcer
16 bit, but then that was all which mattered. NotebookrunningWindows8.Now,Ican'taccessthe
BIOSnomatterhowsoonorhardItryh...
UEFI: I agree, but it didnt when new processor introduced with 32 bit and 64 bit
architecture, your 16 bit execution was becoming problematic, limited RAM access , and HowdoIinstallUbuntuwhenWindows'sBIOSmode
islegacy?
when they were sure that using you makes it little harder to use 32 and 64 bit full
capabilities, they introduced me, I took it to a whole new level. WhatisthedifferencebetweenUEFIandlegacy?

Legacy: Im written in Assembly Language and I use set of interrupts BIOS interrupts, also I HowdoIswitchtoUEFImode?
hook them to do my things.
HowdoIentersafemodeinadualbootPC?
UEFI: So what, I use C most known language in computer world, and I use protocols for the
things where you used Interrupts, I make it easier for developers. IsAppleusingEFIorUEFI?

Legacy: I support Option Roms, but yes maintaining and modifying is little hard in my
case.

UEFI: I use driver, better at maintaining and modifying,

Legacy: I use MBR for booting OS. Also provides maximum 4 primary partition with 2 TB of
maximum size.

UEFI: Ha ha, dont even get me started there, I use GPT, I can provide 128 primary partition
and that too. with 9 ZetaBytes size.

Legacy: Looks like my days are over, its time to rest in peace.

UEFI: Wait, sorry for being rude, but I need you, you need to be there for few more years, till
all the things are moved to UEFI, will you stay.

Legacy: Now Ive been there for all these years few more years doesnt hurt. Ill be with you as
backward compatibility. :-) I hope just People wont be afraid to use me for Booting Im as
safe as you, and you know that aint you?

UEFI: I do, (Thinking shall I say something about secure boot or not, but it is okay she is still
safe :-) ), yes yes I think the same

And that is how the truce was made between UEFI and LEGACY.

Thanks,

Shri :-)

8.9kViews20Upvotes

RelatedQuestions MoreAnswersBelow

WhatisthedifferencebetweenUEFIandLegacyModewhichweneedtochoosewhile
installingtheOS?

IsitpossibletochangeBIOSmodefromLegacytoUEFI?

HowdoIfindoutifmyWindowshasbootedwithBIOSlegacyorUEFI?
https://www.quora.com/WhatisthelegacymodeinBIOSWhatisthedifferencebetweenlegacyandUEFIIsitsafetouselegacymode 1/3
6/23/2017 WhatisthelegacymodeinBIOS?WhatisthedifferencebetweenlegacyandUEFI?Isitsafetouselegacymode?Quora
WhatisthedifferencebetweenUEFIbootingandBIOSbooting?
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IswitchedtheBIOSfromUEFItoLegacyonanAcerNotebookrunningWindows8.Now,I
can'taccesstheBIOSnomatterhowsoonorhardItryh...

Somasundaram Subramanian, A Linux administrator

AnsweredSep1,2016
Legacy Boot is the boot process used by BIOS rmware. The rmware maintains a
list of installed storage devices that may be bootable (Floppy Disk Drives, Hard Disk
Drives, Optical Disk Drives, Tape Drives, etc...) and enumerates them in a
congurable order of priority. One the POST procedure has completed, the
rmware loads the rst sector of each of the storage targets into memory and scans
it for a valid Master Boot Record (MBR). If a valid MBR is found, the rmware
passes execution to the boot loader code found in the MBR which allows the user to
select a partition to boot from. If one is not found, it proceeds to the next device in
the boot order. If no MBR is found at all.

UEFI boot is the boot process used by UEFI rmware. The rmware maintains a list
of valid boot volumes called EFI Service Partitions. During the POST procedure the
UEFI rmware scans all of the bootable storage devices that are connected to the
system for a valid GUID Partition Table (GPT). Unlike a MBR, a GPT does not
contain a boot loader. The rmware itself scans the GPTs to nd an EFI Service
Partition to boot from. If no EFI bootable partition is found, the rmware can fall
back on the Legacy Boot method. If both UEFI boot and Legacy boot fail,will be
presented.

Source: UEFI or Legacy Boot Question

1.4kViews

Prasanth Pulla, 13+ years in the Firmware & boot loaders domain.
AnsweredFeb14,2016
UEFI spec has dened a new set of APIs and tables to pass information about your system
(motherboard devices, chipset info, RAM memory map etc) to an operating system during
boot. This method is not backward compatible with the previous BIOS method of using int
0x19 and E820 tables.

If you are installing a recent version of a OS ( released within last 3 years), I strongly
recommend keeping legacy mode o. This allows you to be future proof and allows you to
make better use of your hard disk with GPT partition scheme.

Using legacy mode ON is perfectly safe, just no reason to do it for a modern OS.

3kViews1Upvote

Tony Tam, operating system theory enthousiast

AnsweredSep1,2016
Legacy mode let computers build with UEFI to support OS supporting only the old BIOS.

there is no legacy without UEFI anyway, they are complementary piece of program thus i
cant really compare them.

UEFI came for a reason. Hardwares have changes since the introduction of the BIOS,
security features have been added as well, if your OS support UEFI go for it. If not or you
have misbehavior with UEFI then go for legacy

1kViews1UpvoteAnswerrequestedbyThatoMatjama

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