BIOS/UEFI discussion continued from Current Events

[Rick W]

From:
http://christianforums.net/Fellowsh...rosoft-dominance-its-for-your-security.59959/

Moved the following to another partition:

Pagefile
Swapfile
Fonts
WinSxS
Temp
SoftwareDistribution/Download
Thunderbird Mail folder

Runinng a lean 10gb drive C with a tad over 3gb free

All apps installed to Drive D

StoveBolts

Unless you point the OS to a different pagefile, it will just create it new in the same location next time the OS boots up... There isn't an harm deleting the swap file either.

Another poster said to build your own pc with an aftermarket board. Actually, most people who do what your doing use aftermarket boards which will allow you the options in the bios to do what you want to do. So don't be too surprised that HP, Dell etc don't have the fancy bios to support some of the things you want to do.

Also, most people I know that used to dual boot no longer run dual boot for different OS's. They simply run emulators so that they can have full access to both systems with the toggle of the keyboard. Virtualbox is a great piece of software that runs in both Windows (if you want to emulate Linux) or runs in Linux (If you want to emulate Windows).

I'm going to bite the bullet and go with UEFI and GPT part tables for the drives. May as well. It's the future anyway. The old BIOS is, or will be soon, obsolete and so is the MBR structure.

New territory though, the EFI. Not sure if it can be edited but an EFI partition is needed to boot an active partition.

I'll get a thread going in the Tech Forum so this one can stay on somewhat on topic.

Right now I'm not real sure exactly how my plans are going to shake out.
At the moment I'm wrestling with GPT and the EFI to come up with some method of copying the system partition Drive C with the ability to restore it if needed. With full booting capability.

In win7 I was using an old copy of Norton Ghost (MBR drives) to copy Drive C and restore it. Worked great. Could restore the partition in 3 minutes +/- 10secs. That was not an image but an actual partition copy.

I have Acronis Disk Director 12 (GPT friendly) that copies a partition just fine but putting it back and being bootable again is a whole nuther matter obviously.

 

[stovebolts]

Have you considered a Linux box running Windows through VirtualBox?

 

[th1b.taylor]

Have you considered a Linux box running Windows through VirtualBox?

SB is putting you on solid ground here. I still run my copy of XP inside Ubuntu by using the free VirtualBox.

 

[Rick W]

Have you considered a Linux box running Windows through VirtualBox?

I don't even know what a virtualbox is

Yet.

SB threatens my toolbox of disk utilities that I paid money for. And yes, if I have to build a computer I'll do that like I used to to do. Frankenstein computers, a bit more expensive but you know what you have and not at the mercy of a manufacture's whims.

Yesterday I thought I had tamed this win8 beast. Got down to under 7 gig drive space.
I'm installing an app and noticed the drive LED chugging away. Now what?
Checked the size.... went from 6.75gb to just over 9.6gb. Did a restore (partition image) unplugged from the network, rebooted and assured Wifi was off.

About 3 or 4 minutes later the drive started crunching again. OK, what the heck is going on now?
Come to find out the new Win8 installation was decompressing hundreds of updates storing them in the SoftwareDistribution/Download folder ready to install when I shut down. Updates are updates... whatever.

That one was totally the last straw for me as far as windows in concerned. That tipped the scales heavily, I'd had enough for sure.
But I can't just dump windows cold turkey since everything I have is windows-based and I need to be able to get things done without waiting for a learning curve to wind down.

In the meantime I need to learn what I can about GPT and this UEFI structure and how to work with it, or against it... that's totally up to the EFI. If it wants a fight then so be it.

 

[stovebolts]

Unless you really, really enjoy the fight.. ;-)

https://www.virtualbox.org/

BTW, have you seen the cost of a Terabyte drive lol!

 

[Rick W]

Unless you really, really enjoy the fight.. ;-)

https://www.virtualbox.org/

BTW, have you seen the cost of a Terabyte drive lol!

Yeah
About $50 :shock
Even WD black series 2tb going for 70 bucks to 125.

The day of the terabyte is here for sure. And I believe MBR can't handle drives over 4tb. So... enter GPT.... (Guid (Globally Unique IDentifier)) Partition Table

 

[stovebolts]

Ahhhh, if we could only go back to booting off a floppy.... sigh....

 

[Rick W]

Unless you really, really enjoy the fight.. ;-)

It's said there's joy in the battle :biggrin

EFI is the future BIOS. I don't see much choice but to learn how to "work" the thing.

[quote="Stovebolts]Ahhhh, if we could only go back to booting off a floppy.... sigh....[/quote]

The machines these days are not yours anymore with a Microsoft OS. Like the modern cars they are designed to operate and do things dictated by someone else.

Boot from Floppy?
How about a headlight dimmer on the floor where it's supposed to be, passengers side mirror a Real mirror and not distorted "for your safety", ....
Don't get me started. I could go on and on about these things :biggrin

But it is what it is.
MBR is on it's way out and the BIOS is history. For good reason I suppose... we're dealing with a lot more data today.
Terabyte drives.
Heck, I still remember the introduction of the Gigabyte drives and that not really long ago.

So there's a battle on the horizon... the dark clouds of change moving in. While change may be good these changes, EFI/GPT, brings with it the embedded deceptions designed to feed off the uninformed controlling what they do and how they think closely following the world of politics for gains in control, money and power.
MSN as a default homepage for IE upon installation? You figure it out.

 

[stovebolts]

Haha, your too funny Rick lol.
When I was working for HP, I had to get certified for their enterprise workstations... Good ole UEFI... Yup. Never did like that bios either. It was like a poorly written mini operating system. Dell wasn't much better.

 

[Rick W]

Got windows 8.1 in it's cage finally (the struggle is getting tougher) on one HD and just an hour ago installed Ubuntu 14.04.2 on another.






OK, I'm lost

It's going to be a learning curve alright but so was Windows 3.1 from DOS 6.22. :D