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3

3TB HDD and legacy BIOS

rated 0 times [ 3] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 2300 / 2 Years ago, mon, december 13, 2021, 12:16:26

I have new 3TB HDD and motherboard with legacy BIOS. To take advantage of full HDD capacity I have to use GPT partition table. I want to dual-boot Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 13.10 (64-bit) from this HDD.

From what I find out for now (from AskUbuntu and my own tests) is that Ubuntu can support GPT partition table even without UEFI on motherboard while Windows 8.1 needs UEFI to do that.

Will Ubuntu 13.10 in fact boot from HDD with GPT partition table when only legacy BIOS is available?

If Ubuntu can boot that way, what is stopping Windows from doing so? I know that answer for that question might be outside of the scope of AskUbuntu, but it might give full picture. In other words - how is Ubuntu superior to Windows that it can boot from GPT-partitioned HDD even with only legacy BIOS available?

Is there any way to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu from 3TB HDD in a way that at least lets Ubuntu use full capacity while leaving Windows with less space?

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antebrow

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1 Year ago

answered 2 Years ago atereress · Accepted Answer

The answer to your first question is yes, because I am doing it now.

I would guess it's probably a Microsoft design decision to encourage adoption of UEFI, rather than a technical reason. UEFI allows Secure Boot and similar stuff that is more important to MS than to its customers.

I don't know of a way to let windows boot from GPT with a legacy BIOS, but there are a couple of ways you can work around the restriction.

One is to run Windows in a VM under Ubuntu.

The other is to run Windows from a second hard drive, formatted as MBR. Just install Ubuntu on the GPT drive as a single boot system, Windows on the MBR drive as a single boot system, and use the BIOS to pick which one to boot from (on my PC, you just hit F12 during the POST to get a boot device menu). It's a lot easier than mucking around with Microsoft's byzantine BCD scheme. You only need about 30GB for a Win 8.1 pro system partition, and you can buy much bigger drives than that for very cheap. If necessary, you can still have an NTFS partition on your big drive for your Windows data.