BIOS - Upgrading and Repairing PCs - page 281

that can almost make a PC with no OS useful all by itself.
UEFI Support
Even though EFI has been around since 2000, full support in the PC environment was virtually
nonexistent until 2008, and it wasn't really widespread until 2011. Intel began shipping some of the
first motherboards with UEFI boot capability in 2006; however, OS support for UEFI wasn't
available until Vista SP1 x64 was released in 2008. MSI shipped a few specific motherboards in
2008 that had optional/experimental UEFI firmware (called Click BIOS ), but few people really used
it because such support really wasn't necessary unless you had a boot drive equal to or greater than
2.2TB in capacity, and drives bigger than that didn't come along until late 2010.
Coinciding with the introduction of the Intel 6x Series chipsets in 2011, many motherboards began
including UEFI firmware as a standard feature. This was just in time to support the new 3TB drives
that were beginning to appear on the market, as well as the growing move to 64-bit OSs such as
Windows 7/8 x64.
If you want to boot from a GPT-formatted disk (2.2TB and larger disks must be formatted as GPT),
you need two things: a motherboard with UEFI firmware (at a minimum a UEFI Boot option that is
enabled) and an OS with UEFI support. Windows UEFI support is provided only in the 64-bit
versions of Vista SP1 and later (including Windows 7/8), whereas most newer 32-bit and 64-bit
Linux versions support UEFI as well. Neither Windows XP nor 32-bit versions of Vista or later
support UEFI, which means they cannot boot from 2.2TB or larger (or GPT-formatted) drives.
Note that although Windows XP and 32-bit versions of 8/7/Vista cannot boot from GPT disks, they
can use GPT-formatted drives as data disks. This support is provided natively in XP x64 and
8/7/Vista x64, but with XP x86 (32-bit) you need a third-party utility such as the Paragon GPT Loader
( www.paragon-software.com ) or the ASUS Disk Unlocker ( www.asus.com ) to enable GPT support.
BIOS Setup
You must run the BIOS Setup to configure the CMOS RAM with information about your system's
drives and user-selected options before you can use your computer. The Setup program provided with
your system is used to select the options you want to use to start your computer.
Running or Accessing the BIOS Setup Program
If you want to run the BIOS Setup program, you usually have to reboot and press a particular key or
key combination during the POST. Normally, the correct key to press is displayed onscreen
momentarily during the POST. If it flashes past too quickly to read, try pressing the Pause key on the
keyboard when it appears. This key freezes the system, allowing you to read the display. Pressing any
other key (such as the spacebar) unpauses the system and allows the POST to continue. The major
vendors have standardized the following keystrokes to enter the BIOS Setup in recent systems:
• AMI BIOS —Press F1 or Del (Delete) during POST.
• Phoenix BIOS —Press F1 or F2 during POST.
• Award BIOS —Press Del (Delete or Ctrl+Alt+Esc during POST.
• Microid Research (MR) BIOS —Press Esc during POST.
If your system does not respond to one of these common keystroke settings, you might have to contact
the manufacturer or read the system documentation to find the correct keystrokes.