UEFI Setup Guide

Updated 5/30/2011

UEFI SETUP GUIDE: for those without an optical drive

If you have an optical drive, skip to PART III. I am using a Lenovo X120e which does not have an optical drive. This guide should work for other laptops without an optical drive as long as you have a USB thumb drive or USB HDD. I have installed it and verified it works. It isn't worth your time and I wasted an entire Sunday. BIOS vs. UEFI performance comparison video. But if you're curious, here are the instructions:

PART 1 - Preparation.

1. Attach a USB HDD / SSD to your computer. Open Computer Management and then open Disk Management.

2. Initialize / format your attached USB drive as a GPT Disk (NOT MBR Disk).

3. Remove and set aside.

4. Attach a USB thumb drive (or HDD is fine) with at least 4GB capacity. Format in FAT32. Even if you are using an HDD, make the partition between 4-10GB and format in FAT32. ** you can format in NTFS, but you may need to set the partition as active. Just avoid the potential issue and format in FAT32.

5. Move Windows 7 install files onto the USB thumb drive or HDD partition.

6. Follow instructions in PART II if you are booting from USB Flash Drive, thumb drive, HDD partition. If you are using a USB optical drive, you can skip PART II.

PART II – Setup the Windows 7 x64 Install Partition on a USB Flash Drive or USB HDD

1. Copy the contents of your Windows 7 x64 install DVD to your USB flash drive or USB HDD.

2. Find the file bootmgfw.efi and put it on your desktop.

a. If you are using Windows 7 x64 already, then this is easy. Go to C:\Windows\Boot\EFI and the file is in there.
b. If you are not using Windows 7 x64, then go to your Flash Drive and look in the sources directory. Find the file called install.wim using 7-Zip. Inside, there are FOUR folders numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Go in folder 1 and get the file there.

3. Rename bootmgfw.efi to bootx64.efi

4. Go back into your Flash Drive. Look in the directory efi\microsoft and you will see a folder called boot

5. Copy the folder called boot and put it into the folder efi\microsoft

6. Copy the folder boot and place it one level up.
If T:\ is your Flash Drive, it should look like this when you are done -> T:\efi\boot

7. Take your renamed file bootx64.efi and place it within this folder T:\efi\boot

8. Now, your Win 7 partition is ready to boot in EFI.

PART III – Change BIOS settings

1. Setup your BIOS to boot UEFI only.

2. Set the boot order for the USB Flash Drive (or optical drive) to be first.

Follow the VIDEO guide for PART III here.


Conclusion: don't waste your time. It may get better in the future, but as of 5/30/2011, it isn't worth it.

 

for those that have an external usb optical drive, this would be a lot easier. no need to format the usb flash drive, copy win7 over, etc.

 

right. I'll update that.

 

Thanks for the video! I never did the timing myself when I switched, so it's nice to have some video proof.

 

I think I concluded that two months ago.

Thanks for putting this to bed sugarkang.

 

Hey, I waste my time so you don't have to. It's a neighborhood service.

 

you can basically skip everything if you have a x64 win7 DVD. just plug the USB optical drive into the laptop and boot the DVD. uefi installs are only an issue when you want to install it via a USB flash drive.

 

Yeah. For sure. I don't have an optical, though and many other people don't. I see this trend continuing. You can skip all of Part II if you have a USB external optical DVD drive. I don't know if you have to prepare your destination disk in GPT (Part I), because I obviously couldn't install with optical. If someone could confirm, I can update the guide.

 

no need to prep the disk. the win7 DVD will make you go through their formatting utility before it lets you install. if you boot in uefi mode only, it can only install in GPT mode.

i installed win7 x64 in uefi mode with an external dvd drive on my x220.

 

edited and updated.

 

thanks a lot for your guide. i dont see any improvement from your video. so is it faster?

 

no. total waste of time.

 

so what is the advantage of having UEFI?

 

What is this Uefi? I tough it was a bios thing.. how is this different than the old bios and how does it affect windows/linux I have x220 and its running an uefi bios but I installed windows the same way I always do...

 

Isn't the main issue lack of driver support currently?

If little on the computer will work due to driver issues, why do it.

Is there any inherent advantage even if the drivers existed?

 

It's for disks larger than 2TB to be able to boot. There are also advantages like having a GUI type of BIOS and minimizing post time (all that loading crap before Starting Windows logo).

UEFI is good. It's just useless on the X120e.

 

How about on the x220?

 

I don't know. I did the UEFI test and the guide because of a demo video Lenovo put out showing a really fast boot. I'd imagine that different boards have different post times, but there doesn't seem to be a reason why UEFI is absolutely necessary to have a fast post time.

I think it's just Lenovo's demo giving a false sense of why UEFI is important. I mean it is important, but not for reducing post times. I don't think so anyway, but not sure.

 

Can you please clarify step 5 of part 2? That doesn't make sense to me. "Copy the folder called boot and put it in the folder efi\microsoft" Didn't the boot folder come from efi\microsoft?

 

Yes. It also seems stupid to me, too. It works. Do it.

 

it's just that it seems as if it wouldn't do anything.

 

It should make a copy of the folder called "boot - Copy" or "boot (1)" or some such. Seems pointless to me too. I suggest you skip it and see if it boots. If not, go back and do it. *shrug*