Wish to convert win7 BIOS install to UEFI, but BING present!

[Glorificus]

Hello all.

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I have BING installed on my boot SSD along with a carefully-tended (non-UEFI) win7 installation. My hardware is 5-6 years old. I've just purchased a current-generation graphics card which (to my partial horror) won't even send a signal to my monitor when I attempt a non-UEFI legacy boot. On the other hand, of course, I cannot boot off the SSD when I attempt a UEFI boot. While attempting to get the card going in some shape or form, I managed to successfully install win10 on a spare HDD in UEFI mode with card present. But I am reluctant to 'upgrade' to win10 just to be able to use the new hardware. I see that it is possible to convert Windows BIOS installations to UEFI, but am left wondering...
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...how will BING's presence complicate the conversion of my windows BIOS installation to UEFI? Must I remove BING before even thinking about attempting the procedure? And am I right in thinking that I'll no longer be able to use BING (or BIBM for that matter) if I'm booting in UEFI mode?

Appreciate any thoughts...

[mjnelson99]

Some functions of BING & BIBM are available in Image for Linux. Check it
out. IFL does work with UEFI & GPT and I even did a restore to my Win 10
partition about a week ago.
Mary

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 5:00 PM, Glorificus wrote:
> Hello all.
>
>
> I have BING installed on my boot SSD along with a carefully-tended (non-UEFI) win7 installation. My hardware is 5-6 years old. I've just purchased a current-generation graphics card which (to my partial horror) won't even send a signal to my monitor when I attempt a non-UEFI legacy boot. On the other hand, of course, I cannot boot off the SSD when I attempt a UEFI boot. While attempting to get the card going in some shape or form, I managed to successfully install win10 on a spare HDD in UEFI mode with card present. But I am reluctant to 'upgrade' to win10 just to be able to use the new hardware. I see that it is possible to convert Windows BIOS installations to UEFI, but am left wondering...
>
>
> ...how will BING's presence complicate the conversion of my windows BIOS installation to UEFI? Must I remove BING before even thinking about attempting the procedure? And am I right in thinking that I'll no longer be able to use BING (or BIBM for that matter) if I'm booting in UEFI mode?
>
> Appreciate any thoughts...
>
>

[CyberSimian]

Glorificus wrote:
>I've just purchased a current-generation
> graphics card which (to my partial horror) won't even send a signal to my monitor
> when I attempt a non-UEFI legacy boot.

I am astonished! (which probably means that I have not understood the problem). Is the problem that there is no Windows 7 driver for your new graphics card? If that is the case, be aware that you can install Windows 10 so that it works in MBR (or EMBR) mode -- you don't need to use UEFI with GPT.

My 8-month old laptop was pre-installed with Windows 10 running in UEFI mode with GPT, but I have since converted it to MBR mode, installed BIBM, and then installed Windows 7 (so I can dual-boot Windows 7 and Windows 10). And yes, I am booting off an SSD (with an HDD for user data).

What is the identity of this graphics card?

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[Glorificus]

Mary wrote:
> Some functions of BING & BIBM are available in Image for Linux. Check it
> out. IFL does work with UEFI & GPT and I even did a restore to my Win 10
> partition about a week ago.

Thanks Mary - I'll certainly check out IFL. I've taken the plunge and removed BING, but still have images I'd like to restore at some point. Hopefully IFL can help here...

CyberSimian wrote:
> Is the problem that there is no Windows 7 driver for your new graphics card?

Not at all (thank the powers that be)! The problem is that the 'new' system won't even POST when I boot in BIOS mode. The card I have been using for years booted just fine in that very same mode. I didn't even know graphics cards gave two hoots about such things! Live and learn...

> My 8-month old laptop was pre-installed with Windows 10 running in UEFI mode with
> GPT, but I have since converted it to MBR mode, installed BIBM, and then installed
> Windows 7 (so I can dual-boot Windows 7 and Windows 10). And yes, I am booting
> off an SSD (with an HDD for user data).

My win10-preinstalled-laptop's almost a year old now and I had a heck of a time getting win7 to even install on it. Cursed Skylake! The trackpad's still completely non-functional (thanks to a lack of win7 drivers for it) but that's a small price to pay in my book if it means avoiding the latest MS OS.

> What is the identity of this graphics card?

It's an ASUS ROG Strix RX 480. I tells you, if I had any idea that over four days after purchase I'd still be battling it... well, I'd at least have plumped for one of the RX480s that have hardware switches on them to choose between BIOS and UEFI modes!

[DrTeeth]

On Fri, 24 Feb 2017 04:47:05 PST, just as I was about to take a herb,
Glorificus disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>Not at all (thank the powers that be)! The problem is that the 'new' system won't even POST when I boot in BIOS mode. The card I have been using for years booted just fine in that very same mode. I didn't even know graphics cards gave two hoots about such things! Live and learn...

The only thing that springs to mind is that your motherboard may have
an integrated graphics card or so may your CPU and you new card needs
it disabled whereas your new card did not.

Let me know how you get on.
--
Cheers,

DrT

"If you want to find out what is wrong
with democracy, spend five minutes with
the average voter." - Winston Churchill