UEFI - How to

hi there,
i recently read about all the uefi stuff on here, etc. so I wanted to know how to do it and if i had to install windows in this mode in order for it to function correctly.. when I set the BIOS to uefi only, when booting and hitting f12 to select the cd for OS install it's always going back to that slash screen even after clicking whatever option.. any suggestions?

thanks!

 

you need to format the disk to UEFI and use a GPT in order for native UEFI to work.
the uefi only option is not for the bios, it's for the OS. you can't boot from windows install disk in uefi only mode.

 

Yes, to install Windows in UEFI mode, you should set the BIOS to do a UEFI only boot.

Then you should prepare a USB key according to the instructions at [How To] Installing Windows 7 x64 To Your CR-48 (UEFI)

I have seen reports from other users about problems with the x220 in UEFI mode, like the fingerprint reader not working.

 

I had absolutely no issues in booting from a Windows install DVD in UEFI-only mode.

To the OP: If you wish to use UEFI-only mode, your best bet is to do a clean install of Windows, with your intended target drive for the OS being completely clean, with no drive partitions. Back up the drive, and then (with UEFI+legacy enabled in BIOS), boot from your install disc. Start a custom install of Windows, and use the advanced mode to delete all partitions from your target drive. Then reboot the system, select UEFI-only mode in the BIOS, and attempt your install from disc.

Note: Your Lenovo ThinkPad recovery media may not be UEFI-aware. For this reason, you may have to use a true Windows 7 Install DVD to install your OS in UEFI-only mode. In my case, I used a Windows 7 x64 Enterprise SP1 install disc (I have a Technet subscription).

 

Same here, I booted in UEFI-only mode using Windows 7 SP1 x64 Media from TechNET (USB DVD Drive).

Drive was detected (310 80gb SSD) and GPT partition created. No issues so far.

I did pull my Original Drive (320gb HDD) before hand and did a disk backup just in case.

 

Is the only benefit of UEFI a faster boot time?

How much faster is it?

 

startup time is about the same.

the benefit is really just the support for >2tb hard disk.

 

According to this video, boot time is improved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLwaKb6pLrc

 

Lenovo's EE 2.0 "fastest boot" configurations in their labs have utilized UEFI-only with GPT partitioning.

Whether they're on to something or not, I can't say, but it's in the Lenovo blogs.

 

So just to clarify, going UEFI-only is only beneficial if you have >2TB? Boot time improvement isn't proven?

 

no don't listen to spoon. boot time is SIGNIFICANTLY improved.

 

Oh, it is proven, just the difference is minimal. And that would be 2TB in one drive--a combination of drives for over 2TB is supported by BIOS.

Hardly. Even if the POSTing time were cut in half, at most that would be a grand total of some two seconds. My X120e still has BIOS (I didn't know whether I would encounter any unexpected issues, so chose to play it safe with BIOS this time around), and it breezes right through it in under two seconds. If UEFI cut the time in half, my boot time would improve by one second.

Percentage-wise, it could be significant; realistically, it's not.

 

YouTube - ‪Lenovo UEFI Demo Clip.wmv‬‏

from what I understand, uefi cuts post times by more than just a few seconds, but i don't have my w520 yet so if it's not like this in the real world then i'll stand corrected =/

 

Most people are getting boot times in the 30-40 second range with a decent SSD drive and BIOS Legacy MBR boot.

It appears going the BIOS UEFI GPT route you can reduce this to the 20-30 second range.

Someone pointed out that all the time you waste rebuilding a machine from scratch to support this method of boot eats up the time gained by the new method. You are certainly going to need to run that way a pretty long time before you break even.

Then there's the backup and recovery process. Be sure to test both with your toolset.

 

Just to make things clear: the fingerprint reader will not fully work. You can use it to log into windows with the non lenovo driver, but that doesn't really work when it's coming out of sleep. Booting with fingerprint doesn't work at all, since you need the lenovo drivers for that. And when you're installing, make sure you install sp1 before you install the intel hd graphics drivers. If you don't you'll get blue screens. Just read this, lots of info over there.

Edit: I'm not sure how much it improves the boot time, but I'm using UEFI with an Intel 320 120GB and it takes 20 seconds from pressing the button to windows logon screen.

 

I have measured boot time from Lenovo logo appearing on my screen to Ctrl+Alt+Del as 12 seconds. From hitting Enter after inputting the logon password, it's another 4-5 seconds to desktop with AV client fully loaded.

If I counted from Power button to Lenovo logo, that would add on another 4 seconds. All of this is with UEFI-only, GPT partitioning, RapidBoot driver installed. This would mean that at conservative estimates, a 24-second boot time if I count hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del and entering in my password.

 

not all time is created equal!

 

That's a weird way to think of it. I may have more free time to work on my computer over the weekend and less free time to boot it up when I'm travelling. It makes no sense to think of it like that to me.

Besides, I always reinstall from scratch with a new computer. Since I'll be doing it anyways, the real question is: is it worth it going with this new technology or should I just stick with tried and true? If the difference is 10s out of 40s, that's a pretty huge improvement. If the difference is 2s out of 4s, hardly seems worth the effort.

 

Well, I'm weird like that. I think most of the people here are enthusiast and the time we tinker with this stuff is considered entertainment.

But on the serious side, folks that want to look at this for corporate deployment really do have a number of issues to consider.

Everyone seen the RapidBoot Extreme site at Lenovo - RapidBoot Extreme ???

I need to call Lenovo and see if I can get them to ship me an update for my T420s. Mine didn't come with it.

 

the uefi in that laptop looks completely custom, as well as the OS install.

you don't see the thinkpad initial splash screen, and you also don't see the win7 splash screen.

they could have just simply disabled the win7 splash screen to speed up the boot time and nothing else. you really can't tell from just the video alone and lenovo doesn't provide any details on what exactly they did besides using a 'custom bios/uefi'.

 

As I said, I can't say whether they're on to something or not --it's just in their blogs.

I've posted my times. It is possible the same times can be reached without UEFI-only set in the BIOS, but that's not how I set up my system, and I'm not planning on reformatting to try out. The best way for us to know is to have someone attempt the same type of configuration (Intel 310 80GB, Lenovo RapidBoot driver) with Win7 installed in legacy mode with an MBR partition, and see what their boot times are.

 

When I get mine, I'll probably record the boot times from stock config before I reformat. I'll be using the 80gb Intel 310 for a boot drive so we'll see how that goes with legacy. And yeah, I plan on getting the i5-2520 and4 or 8gb of ram.

Right now just waiting for the Memorial Day sale to pull the trigger on (hopefully) a better deal than the free RAM+HDD upgrade. And yes, I already bought my mSATA drive since I found one in stock.

Is there a program for timing boots of do you just use a watch?

 

I just stopwatch --or parachute-drop count (one one-thousand, two one-thousand...).

 

Okay, I just watched that video and holy hell that is fast. You press the power button and in one second, the Windows screen starts. My SSD will get me inside windows within 8 seconds.

So can I just format my drive as GPT and throw an image on there and I'm ready to go?

 

Well I've seen people with similar machines running an 80GB Intel 310 boot using UEFI in ~20 seconds. I'm in BIOS legacy mode running a 40GB Intel 310 (slower) and I consistently boot in 11 seconds. I honestly don't think boot time is significantly improved. If it is even improved at all, its probably not noticeable.

 

gotta compare apples to apples here. list your machine etc.

 

My take is that this would be interesting but enough of the machine wouldn't work (new W520 and X220) that interesting is all it is.

Once Lenovo fully supports it with drivers (next year?) it will be worth changing.

Perry

 

My boot time is 13 seconds for Server 2008. The trade off is no bitlocker or proper fingerprint reader boot. If they don't fix that before my next China trip I'll be going back to legacy for bitlocker.

 

I've gone back to legacy weeks ago and dont miss UEFI at all.
my SSD performs as it should, my fpr works as it should, i dont get weird crashes, the touchpad doesnt stop working randomly, standby works 100%. etc.

 

Bitlocker works for me in UEFI-only mode, but I may be utilizing it differently than you are. I don't unlock my partition unless I need it, and I have a script to re-lock it whenever I want.

 

I pushed the power button on my apple and 10 hours later its still this apple.. sitting on my desk. What is this desktop you speak of?

Ok bad joke was bad

 

Just installed UEFI on ThinkPad X120e. Boot times not worth it. Thought the 10 second post time from cold boot would be gone. Nope. Still here. I'll make a video comparing UEFI vs. BIOS soon.

 

It doesn't work with the TPM for the OS drive as it has to be able to contact the TPM and retrieve the keys. From what I understand, the UEFI bios is missing a driver for the TPM so nothing can contact it pre-OS.

 

That would explain it. I'm not using the OS drive for Bitlocker; I'm using it for a partition on my mechanical hard drive, while the mSATA SSD is my boot drive.

 

I think you should be in the Macbook Pro forum.

Either that, or you need to boot off your Snow Leopard disc and run Disk Utility.