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    UEFI/Legacy Boot Options W520

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by pkincy, May 4, 2011.

  1. pkincy

    pkincy Notebook Evangelist

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    Tell me about these options in BIOS setup.

    As delivered my W520 has boot set to both UEFI and Legacy with Legacy to boot first.

    Is there a reason to boot both ways? Can we tweak these settings?

    Perry
     
    pkincy, May 4, 2011
    #1
  2. sp00n

    sp00n Notebook Deity

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    uefi is supposed to be faster but most people have seen that their thinkpads boot at about the same speed vs BIOS.
     
    sp00n, May 4, 2011
    #2
  3. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    I think that's the general benefit of UEFI. The default Lenovo install of Windows is configured with BIOS, I believe, so upon clean-installing W7, it is advisable to switch to UEFI-only before booting and installing W7.
     
    MidnightSun, May 4, 2011
    #3
  4. sp00n

    sp00n Notebook Deity

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    sp00n, May 4, 2011
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  5. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thors.Hammer, May 4, 2011
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  6. bsoft

    bsoft Notebook Consultant

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    One thing to look out for is that BitLocker doesn't appear to work in UEFI mode (at least it doesn't on my X220). It's technically supposed to work but the TPM refuses to give the key up and the system asks for the recovery key every time you boot it, which is annoying. Hopefully this can be fixed with a BIOS (actually, UEFI) update but for now I would stick with legacy mode if you intend on using BitLocker.
     
    bsoft, May 4, 2011
    #6
  7. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    That might be an old bug. Move the hard drive to the first device in the boot list and see if BitLocker settles down. It doesn't like devices coming and going ahead of it in the boot list.

    Usually this comes up in docked situations where a new drive is presented.
     
    Thors.Hammer, May 4, 2011
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  8. pkincy

    pkincy Notebook Evangelist

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    I did a Lenovo Recovery Disk reinstall on my W520. So it is not a "clean install" of win 7.

    Isn't there something else that doesn't work with UEFI from Lenovo?

    I suppose it won't hurt anything to go into setup and configure boot to be UEFI only and see what happens.

    Perry
     
    pkincy, May 4, 2011
    #8
  9. PatchySan

    PatchySan Om Noms Kit Kat

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    You mean the recovery discs? Well I tried UEFI Only and attempted to boot the recovery discs and it would just stall. Only when I converted back to Legacy BIOS mode the recovery media would initialise.
     
    PatchySan, May 4, 2011
    #9
  10. LoneWolf15

    LoneWolf15 The Chairman

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    Bitlocker works fine in UEFI-only mode on my T420; not sure why it would be a problem on a W520. TPM is enabled.

    I think I use mine a bit differently than you do though, I leave mine locked until I need to unlock it, and I have a script to re-lock the drive when I'm done. Since I'm used to manually unlocking my drive, I don't deal with your issue.

    I do wonder if the issue you mention is related to the issues people are having with their fingerprint reader in UEFI-only mode, as the FP reader uses the TPM as well. If so, I think a BIOS update will fix things.
     
    LoneWolf15, May 4, 2011
    #10
  11. kohyeekan

    kohyeekan Notebook Consultant

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    I don't have a Windows 7 DVD, so I am stucked with the Recovery Discs. Is it better if I choose Legacy only?
     
    kohyeekan, May 5, 2011
    #11
  12. tarfu

    tarfu Notebook Enthusiast

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    can i install win 7 in bios mode and switch to uefi later? or does that screw up the partition table/something else?
     
    tarfu, May 5, 2011
    #12