UEFI mode on GA X79-UP4

[bradly1101]

I was reading in another thread that you should not mix GPT volumes with MBR volumes unless the boot volume is GPT. When I installed my Intel 750 SSD I set it up as GPT, but my boot drive is another SSD but it's an MBR volume.

Anyway I found a guide to convert a boot MBR drive to GPT without losing the Windows installation (which would be awesome), BUT it says I must be in UEFI mode. I figured I was since it has one of those new-fangled BIOSes in which you use a mouse.

But I wanted to double check, and there's no EFI partition on any drive . So I researched the BIOS settings and all I could find online were from an older BIOS (I have the latest) which had a BIOS mode setting (EFI or Legacy). Even the latest downloadable manual for this board shows "PCI ROM Priority" (EFI or Legacy - EFI DEFAULT!) in the BIOS but it doesn't exist in mine (see photo - sorry about the crappy camera).

All the UEFI options are in the Windows 8 section of the BIOS, but that's not active (set to "Other OS").

So how do I get my board in UEFI mode with Windows 7?

The UEFI mode was where "Fast Boot" is now and all the Win 8 UEFI stuff is below that. When it was in the main BIOS, UEFI was the default - if only...

 

[bradly1101]

I think I know the answer - use Win 8 mode, and reinstall everything , but right now everything is running fine, except occasionally it pauses when looking for drives in a navigation pane.

 

[bradly1101]

Well I went for it, but with my motherboard in Win8 mode Windows setup won't see any drive on the Intel SATA ports if it is in RAID mode, which I use. So I'm hoping it's OK to leave a mix of GPT/MBR drives with an MBR as the boot drive.

 

[bradly1101]

I took the easy way out and corverted the GPT disk to MBR using a free partition tool (EaseUS), and I was able to retain everything.

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