Notes

BIOS vs. UEFIUEFI enables better use of bigger hard drives. Though UEFI supports the traditional master boot record (MBR) method of hard drive partitioning, it doesn't stop there. It's also capable of working with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), which is free of the limitations the MBR places on the number and size of partitions. GPT ups the maximum partition size from 2.19TB to 9.4 zettabytes.

UEFI may be faster than the BIOS. Various tweaks and optimizations in the UEFI may help your system boot more quickly it could before. For example: With UEFI you may not have to endure messages asking you to set up hardware functions (such as a RAID controller) unless your immediate input is required; and UEFI can choose to initialize only certain components. The degree to which a boot is sped up will depend on your system configuration and hardware, so you may see a significant or a minor speed increase.

Technical changes abound in UEFI. UEFI has room for more useful and usable features than could ever be crammed into the BIOS. Among these are cryptography, network authentication, support for extensions stored on non-volatile media, an integrated boot manager, and even a shell environment for running other EFI applications such as diagnostic utilities or flash updates. In addition, both the architecture and the drivers are CPU-independent, which opens the door to a wider variety of processors (including those using the ARM architecture, for example).

However, UEFI is still not widespread. Though major hardware companies have switched over almost exclusively to UEFI use, you still won't find the new firmware in use on all motherboards—or in quite the same way across the spectrum. Many older and less expensive motherboards also still use the BIOS system.