Acer ICONIA W700

tiff_baby69

What is the difference between Legacy BIOS and UEFI type for the Boot Type?

And how do you know the Boot priority order?

billsey

Legacy BIOS uses hard coded routines to get the OS started up from the disk. UEFI uses code from a hidden partition on the disk to get the OS started. UEFI allows a lot more functionality built in that's available before the OS loads, typically things like hardware diagnostics. UEFI also allows for verifying that the boot code hasn't been changed and was created by the appropriate vendor before allowing the boot to proceed, so it's pretty much immune from rootkit viruses.

 

Because of the different way each boots, the boot priority order is handled differently. They each typically have a keypress to bring up an interface that allows you to change the boot order. In a BIOS system you are allowed to choose from specific devices that the BIOS knows about. You can usually choose from disk, optical media or USB. UEFI builds the list of available devices in the fly sort of, so will allow choices like 'the third partition on the second drive'.