TeraByte Unlimited

jbraner wrote:

> What do you mean they're not separate products when you just called them
> separate products?
>

That was confusing. I meant separate from BIU. There is only one BootIt that works with UEFI.

Hi Brian,

That's getting to the core of my confusion.

When you say (and Bob was saying it too)
[quote]There is only one BootIt that works with UEFI.[/quote]

I thought all BIOS from the last 5-10 years support UEFI. From reading here, it seems like we (I include myself here) have been mixing up the terms "BIOS" and "UEFI"
https://www.howtogeek.com/56958/htg-exp ... -the-bios/
I was sure my Asus MOBO which is 6 or 7 years old supports UEFI - and I use good ol' BIBM.
I mean, my "BIOS" lets you choose UEFI devices to boot from.
I just thought that "UEFI" was modern "BIOS", AND I thought most utilities just support either/or. I'm not used to seeing separate versions of a utility to work with UEFI/GPT only.

So between MBR and GPT being disk format methods and UEFI being what I always called "the BIOS" (hence disk formatting methods and motherboard firmware being two completely different things) - I was, and still remain, a little confused

I'll just continue using BIBM (I only use it for setting up boot partitions - not actual partition management) until it doesn't work any more - then I'll need to update to BootIt UEFI.

jbraner,

Yes, even before reading your latest post, I had realized that I needed to come back and say the following which is exactly what I would have said absent your last post.

I said above that BIBM won't work on a UEFI system. That's not quite correct. If the system is booting in legacy mode and the operating systems to be booted are on a(n) (E)MBR disk, it will work. That's exactly my current situation. What I think I should have said is that if the "UEFI/BIOS" (not a precisely correct term either) doesn't support legacy booting or legacy booting is not enabled, then BIBM won't work, probably won't even boot.

jbraner wrote:
> I'll just continue using BIBM (I only use it for setting up boot partitions
> - not actual partition management) until it doesn't work any more - then
> I'll need to update to BootIt UEFI.

As I understand it:

(1) A system that is working in UEFI mode can boot only from a GPT disk, but the system can contain other disks that are MBR, and they can be accessed as data disks.

(2) A system that is working in legacy mode can boot only from an MBR disk, but the system can contain other disks that are GPT, and they can be accessed as data disks. The MBR disks in the system can optionally be EMBR disks, but the GPT disks cannot be EMBR disks.

BIBM works only with (2).
BIU works with (1). I don't know whether it also works with (2).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Bob Coleman wrote:
> jbraner,
>
> Yes, even before reading your latest post, I had realized that I needed to
> come back and say the following which is exactly what I would have said
> absent your last post.
>
> I said above that BIBM won't work on a UEFI system. That's not quite
> correct. If the system is booting in legacy mode and the operating systems
> to be booted are on a(n) (E)MBR disk, it will work. That's exactly my
> current situation. What I think I should have said is that if the
> "UEFI/BIOS" (not a precisely correct term either) doesn't support
> legacy booting or legacy booting is not enabled, then BIBM won't work,
> probably won't even boot.

Hi Bob,
I think I finally get it now.
I also think that we have all shown that this is *not* a straightforward topic
I didn't help matters by trying to add a little sarcasm/humour in to the mix, and saying GPT when I meant MBR.

> If the system is booting in legacy mode and the operating systems
> to be booted are on a(n) (E)MBR disk, it will work. That's exactly my
> current situation.
That is exactly my situation too.

CyberSimian,
Yes - I think we're all converging (and agreeing) now
also, having read the TeraByte site again - I think BIU does also work with your example #1 (but don't take my word for it)

So - it sounds like staying with BIBM is a good plan until we get a new PC that will not work with "legacy" (E)MBR disks.
Mind you - look at the product info for BIBM and BootIt UEFI - they are *very* similar. I guess it would be the UEFI "BIOS" (or whatever w e agree to call it) on the new PC that would dictate the need for us to change. It also looks like either product would be able to change our (E)MBR disks to GPT - so the changeover *should* be relatively painless (cough).
We would obviously have a bunch of backups handy before trying any of this...

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I haven't succeeded in changing an (E)MBR disk to GPT with any Terabyte program.

Microsoft has MBR2GPT which will do it, but I'm not sure it's anything worth doing except as an academic exercise.

I guess you could just reformat disks and restore a backup image?
Personally, I think I'll just stick with EMBR until I'm forced to change

You'd use the chgdtype.tbs script.


"Bob Coleman" wrote in message news:16937@public.bootitbm...

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I haven't succeeded in changing an
(E)MBR disk to GPT with any Terabyte program.

Microsoft has MBR2GPT which will do it, but I'm not sure it's anything worth
doing except as an academic exercise.

As has been mentioned here before, I, and I think some others, tried this without success. I don't remember exactly what happened though.

TeraByte Support wrote:
> You'd use the chgdtype.tbs script.
>
>
> "Bob Coleman" wrote in message news:16937@public.bootitbm...
>
> I'm not saying it can't be done, but I haven't succeeded in changing an
> (E)MBR disk to GPT with any Terabyte program.
>
> Microsoft has MBR2GPT which will do it, but I'm not sure it's anything
> worth
> doing except as an academic exercise.

TeraByte Support wrote:
> You'd use the chgdtype.tbs script.
> >
> "Bob Coleman" wrote in message news:16937@public.bootitbm...
>
> I'm not saying it can't be done, but I haven't succeeded in changing an
> (E)MBR disk to GPT with any Terabyte program.
>
> Microsoft has MBR2GPT which will do it, but I'm not sure it's anything
> worth doing except as an academic exercise.

"use the chgdtype.tbs" but what do we do and in which order?
First your script>>disk is changed. But the 'BIOS' is still MBR/legacy
So, the PC restarts with an outtodate Bios >> do we have to go immediately in the BIOS to switch to UEFI mode?
Not clear for me...