Switching from Legacy to UEFI - AsRock H310CM-HDV

[Spigaw]

Hello there people,

 

For obvious reasons, I'm trying to switch from Legacy mode to UEFI on my AsRock H310CM-HDV, on UEFI version P4.20.

 

However, and in a way that differs from every other MoBo I ever had, there is no simple switch between BIOS and UEFI; the only settings I can find concern the CSM.

 

So here are my questions:

• If I switch CSM from Enabled to Disabled, will my BIOS be in UEFI mode?
• If I do so, should I convert my main hard drive from MBR to GPT? I read somewhere that MBR is not compatible with UEFI.

 

Thanks in advance...

[AnirbanG007]

39 minutes ago, Spigaw said:

Hello there people,

 

For obvious reasons, I'm trying to switch from Legacy mode to UEFI on my AsRock H310CM-HDV, on UEFI version P4.20.

 

However, and in a way that differs from every other MoBo I ever had, there is no simple switch between BIOS and UEFI; the only settings I can find concern the CSM.

 

So here are my questions:

• If I switch CSM from Enabled to Disabled, will my BIOS be in UEFI mode?
• If I do so, should I convert my main hard drive from MBR to GPT? I read somewhere that MBR is not compatible with UEFI.

 

Thanks in advance...

Can't say much about CSM but you probably have to change your hard drive partition table from mbr to gpt. There are some tools like AOMEI Partition Manager, Ease US Partition Manager, I'm not sure, they should help you to convert without loosing your data. Otherwise changing modes formats the entire disk.

[Tan3l6]

Damn, trying to repair MBR boot problems compared to GPT/UEFI were the good days.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Can you show disk management?

 

That screenshot seems to show that your in uefi mode already. The legacy boot is for network boot only.

[Spigaw]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Can you show disk management?

 

That screenshot seems to show that your in uefi mode already. The legacy boot is for network boot only.

You'll find attached the system information as well as the details of the volumes of my disk. It's in baguette, but note that Hérité = Legacy and Secteur de démarrage principal = MBR.

[Spigaw]

1 hour ago, AnirbanG007 said:

Can't say much about CSM but you probably have to change your hard drive partition table from mbr to gpt. There are some tools like AOMEI Partition Manager, Ease US Partition Manager, I'm not sure, they should help you to convert without loosing your data. Otherwise changing modes formats the entire disk.

Thanks for this answer. My question is: will my computer boot if I convert my HDD without changing from Legacy to UEFI?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Spigaw said:

You'll find attached the system information as well as the details of the volumes of my disk. It's in baguette, but note that Hérité = Legacy and Secteur de démarrage principal = MBR.

Can you show a disk management screenshot?

 

But you can use mbr2gpt to conver to a gpt and switch to efi boot.

[Spigaw]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Can you show a disk management screenshot?

 

But you can use mbr2gpt to conver to a gpt and switch to efi boot.

Here it is

[Electronics Wizardy]

19 minutes ago, Spigaw said:

Here it is

So it looks like the system reserved partition is on the wrong drive, so that should be moved to the boot drive.

 

Do you have a good backups, make one first.

 

Then mbr2gpt, and something like gparted to move that system reserved partition is what id do.

 

Or just reinstall windows. Why do you want efi boot if legacy boots fine?

 

 

[Spigaw]

24 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

So it looks like the system reserved partition is on the wrong drive, so that should be moved to the boot drive.

 

Do you have a good backups, make one first.

 

Then mbr2gpt, and something like gparted to move that system reserved partition is what id do.

 

Or just reinstall windows. Why do you want efi boot if legacy boots fine?

 

 

I want UEFI for better boot times, better compatibility, secure boot and Windows 11

 

I think I'll reinstall Windows, it'll be less hassle to go through

[Tan3l6]

Just now, Spigaw said:

I want UEFI for better boot times, better compatibility, secure boot and Windows 11

 

I think I'll reinstall Windows, it'll be less hassle to go through

Boot times - no difference

Compatibility - most likely no difference

Windows 11 - not worth it at this stage. 

 

Just my thoughts.

[AnirbanG007]

17 hours ago, Spigaw said:

Thanks for this answer. My question is: will my computer boot if I convert my HDD without changing from Legacy to UEFI?

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not sure. But afaik, legacy will use mbr, and uefi will use gpt. I really don't know if there is a crossover. When I changed my system. I did both, enabled uefi support, disabled legacy, and converted my mbr to gpt. This was 6 years ago. So, I don't really have any other experience.

[Spigaw]

So I went ahead and did the following:

Disable CSM, which rendered my SSD invisible to the BIOS

Reinstalled Windows 10 with a bootable USB key, which created all the needed partitions on the SSD

Activated dev preview and got Windows 11

 

I have a last question, what will happen if I delete the system reserved partition on my data HDD? Will it still work?

 

Thanks for your help!