Is a 2011 SandyBridge build Chronos laptop UEFI capable/compatible

Hi

I have a Chronos Series 7 Sandybridge laptop - I think the first variant of these (NP700z5a-S01UK) - and I am preparing to do a system refresh.

I've already have an SSD in it for about a year, which it runs pretty well, and it's finishing off a backup before I start to open it up, but I think it still runs in a standard BIOS and in Windows 7 Home Professional 64 bit on an MBR set up. It has the latest BIOS that I can find 15FD, but I don't see any options in it for setting UEFI mode on or off. Is the BIOS only showing me options that fit with my current set up - so if I gave it a new SSD and set that up as a GPT disk instead of an MBR one, would the UEFI options then be available?

Or is there something in the BIOS that I need to switch on or off, before I see the UEFI options? The only thing that seems relevant is changing the hard drive from IDE to AHCI mode.

I've seen references to a modified BIOS on other threads here, but I thought that this was in relation to the switchable graphics options. Would that help me get my laptop into UEFI mode so that I can set up the new drive as a GPT Drive?

Kerguelan

 

I would definitely NOT recommend switching to UEFI on your model, and certainly not for Win7.

It is an older model, and Samsung was known to have problems with their UEFI implementation in those models -- particularly with Win7. Some users ended up bricking their 2012 Samsung models by installing Linux or Windows in UEFI mode, as you will see in the thread linked below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/706510-samsung-laptops-bricked-using-uefi.html

Back in late 2012 / early 2013, when that happened a lot (because new Win8 models were delivered with UEFI enabled), Samsung replaced motherboards under warranty when computers were bricked due to this UEFI issue. But now, with a 2+ year old model, I would not count on them doing so.

And the benefits you could get from UEFI are minimal: You will be able to boot GPT drives larger than 2TB -- but you can use large GPT data drives, even in non-UEFI mode. And you may see slightly faster boot times with UEFI -- though I doubt you will feel the difference on an SSD.

I have a NP700Z3A myself (quite similar to yours) and I like this computer a lot. I have two OS partitions on the 750GB disk, and have used both Win7, Win8 and 8.1 on it. My primary OS is Win8, which works perfectly on this machine; but so did Win7. Win 8.1 took a little work and is not officially supported by Samsung on Sandy Bridge models.

Anyways, if you DO want to switch to UEFI regardless, your BIOS version 15FD should have an UEFI Boot Support option on the Advanced page. I have 15FD as well, and this is how that page looks for me:



On newer models it is under SecureBoot on the Boot page, and you select OS Mode Selection=UEFI OS to enable UEFI, and OS Mode Selection=CSM OS to disable it:



After you enable UEFI in BIOS, you will have to convert your disk to GPT mode (which wipes everything) and re-install Windows -- you probably already knew that. Of course the same is true after disabling UEFI in BIOS, the disk must be converted to MBR (which wipes everything).

This post has a little overview and some links to more reading about UEFI and GPT.

Since the 2013 models, Samsung has worked out the problems in their UEFI implementation, and on those models we generally recommend staying in UEFI mode for Win8 and 8.1 -- though I still recommend non-UEFI (CSM/BIOS mode) for Win7.