Windows Vista, 7, and Server 2008 64-bit versions support it as well, however, it can require a little extra work when installing off a USB. Windows 8 and newer supports this type of boot mode by default. When booting off a UEFI GPT installation, the boot option will no longer be the physical drive’s name, but an option called Windows Boot Manager. The key point to note here is that, when booting off a legacy MBR installation, the BIOS boot option will be the OS drive’s name. All current SSDs and HDDs can be set to GPT or MBR, so they shouldn’t limit your ability in doing a native UEFI install. It also supports up to 128 primary partitions (could actually be more, but limited by OS’s) vs 3 + 1 extended partition that can be expanded into logical partitions. There is GPT header and partition table redundancy as they are located in the beginning and ending LBAs of a drive. It can boot off of partitions that are greater than 2.2TB in size. It is backwards compatible with MBR as it leaves an MBR in LBA 0. Like UEFI, the GPT is a bit more advanced and has some benefits to it. The MBR allows for you to create partitions on a storage medium and allows a BIOS or UEFI to see the active partition to boot off of it. GPT and MBR are different partitioning schemes that set the partitioning layout of a storage medium. On the software side of things you also need support, the system drive needs to have a GUID Partition Table or GPT when the OS is installed onto it, not the standard Master Boot Record or MBR we are used to and older BIOS’s understand. Also, one thing to note is that the Ultra Fast mode will boot so fast that you may have to use a UEFI setup utility from your motherboard manufacturer to enter back into the UEFI once it is enabled. We will talk about what cards are compatible later on. Now what the heck does UEFI GOP compliant even mean? It basically means that your graphics card supports native UEFI Ultra Fast booting. The Ultra Fast option allows the motherboard UEFI to initialize all the hardware at once vs sequentially as with a BIOS, thus speeding up the POST process, however, you have to have a UEFI GOP (Graphics Output Protocol) compliant graphics card. Ultra Fast is where things might seem to get a bit complicated, but really they aren’t. Fast means that it will cut some of the checks during POST to speed up the POST process. Disabled means that it will do a normal boot with no speeding up of the POST. Typically there are three options, Disable, Fast, and Ultra Fast (also called hardware boot, Windows feature, or something similar in the UEFI). The latest UEFI motherboards have fast boot options integrated in them under the boot tab menu. Without getting to deep into details, UEFI has a lot of benefits over the old BIOS firmware we are used to, including the ability to use the mouse, more security, and much faster POST and boot capabilities. If you have a computer that was built within the last 3-4 years, chances are that it has a different firmware called a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface or UEFI implementation. Over the past few years firmware has been progressing quite a bit. It also allows the OS a way to interact with the system’s I/O. It handles initialization and testing the system hardware as well as loading a boot loader or operating system. You are probably familiar with this term and have gone into a BIOS to tweak settings for your system, whether it be to change the boot order or overclock your system. On older systems, the motherboard’s firmware is called a Basic Input/Output System or BIOS. PCs have specialized software called firmware that controls the hardware. Today, we are going to go over how to optimize your system and do a native UEFI Windows installation to speed up your boot time as fast as possible! When we say ultra-fast, we mean powered off system to desktop in 6-10 seconds.ĭoes this sound crazy? Well, it really isn’t. There are some other things you can do than just slapping an SSD in your system and setting the SATA mode to AHCI or RAID to achieve ultra-fast boot times by using the latest hardware. SSDs will sometimes cut minutes off boot times when compared to hard drives, however, more often than not, many people do not know how to properly configure, or even know that it is possible to configure their system in such a way to speed up their boot time even more. As you know, many people buy SSDs to not only speed up their computing experience, but also speed up the boot time of their machines.
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