Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
BIOS
3.
What is UEFI?
3.1.
Accessing the UEFI in Windows10
4.
UEFI vs. BIOS
5.
Frequently Asked Questions
5.1.
What does UEFI support entail?
5.2.
What is the content of the EFI partition?
5.3.
Is it possible for an outdated BIOS to trigger a system crash?
6.
Conclusion
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024

What is UEFI and How it is different from BIOS?

Author Ankit Kumar
1 upvote
Operating Systems

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what connects your computer's firmware to the operating system or initializes the hardware components and runs the operating system stored on the hard disk when the computer boots up?

In the article, we will be discussing the firmware interface UEFI in detail. Hence, we will also be checking on some differences between the BIOS interface and the UEFI interface. We will also see the advantages of the modern UEFI over the older BIOS interface.

So let us dig down into the interface and learn more about it.

Also see, Features of Operating System Also read, Multiprogramming vs Multitasking

BIOS

Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), often known as system BIOS, ROM BIOS, or PC BIOS, is an acronym for Basic Input/Output System. It's software that's stored on a chip on the motherboard of a computer. BIOS firmware is pre-installed on a computer's motherboard. It is non-volatile firmware, which means that its settings will not be lost or changed even if the device is turned off.

It's not difficult to figure out how BIOS works. The BIOS loads and wakes up the computer's hardware components when it starts up, ensuring that they are working properly. The boot loader is then loaded, which starts Windows or any other operating system you've installed.

You should know that the BIOS must run in 16-bit processor mode and has just 1 MB of memory to work. It has problems initializing several hardware devices at once in this situation, resulting in a delayed boot procedure when all the hardware interfaces and devices on a modern PC are initialized.

What is UEFI?

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, or UEFI, is a firmware interface for computers that acts as a "middleman" between its firmware and operating system. It initializes the hardware components when the computer starts up and launches the operating system stored on the hard drive.

UEFI has several additional capabilities and benefits not available through the standard BIOS and will eventually replace the BIOS.

A .efi file, which is kept on a specific disc called EFI System Partition, contains all information concerning initialization and starting in UEFI (ESP). The boot loader programs that are installed on the computer for the operating system will also be found on the ESP disc.

Note that some computer users refer to UEFI boot as "BIOS," which may cause some confusion. Even though your PC refers to itself as a "BIOS," most current PCs today use UEFI firmware rather than a BIOS. Some people refer to UEFI firmware as UEFI BIOS, while BIOS is referred to as Legacy BIOS or traditional BIOS.

Accessing the UEFI in Windows10

People often tell you that if you need to perform a clean install or repair a Windows 10 boot issue, you should go into the BIOS and modify the bootup settings to give the USB drive or CD/DVD start sequence priority. How can you go into UEFI Windows 10 if your PC has UEFI firmware?

You don't need to click a key while your computer is booting up to access UEFI Windows 10 because PCs with UEFI now boot up very quickly, and you only have a limited amount of time to do so. To gain access to UEFI Windows 10, attempt the instructions below.

Step 1: Select Settings from the Windows Start menu by right-clicking it. After that, select Update and Security.

Step 2: On this screen, choose Recovery. Click Restart now in the Advanced startup section. The system will then restart.

Step 3: Select Troubleshoot from the menu.

Step 4: To proceed to the next page, select Advanced options.

Step 5: Finally, choose UEFI Firmware Settings.

Step 6: To restart the machine and access the UEFI interface, click Restart.

You can also read about the Multilevel Feedback Queue Scheduling And Open Source Operating System.

UEFI vs. BIOS

When compared to BIOS, UEFI offers the following benefits:

  1. UEFI allows consumers to use discs larger than 2 TB, whereas previous BIOS couldn't support such massive storage drives.
  2. With a GUID Partition Table, UEFI can support four primary partitions.
  3. UEFI firmware-enabled computers boot faster than BIOS-enabled computers. UEFI improvements and enhancements can enable your system to boot more quickly than it could previously.
  4. UEFI allows safe starting, implying that the operating system's legitimacy may be verified to guarantee that malware does not interfere with the startup process.
  5. UEFI firmware includes a networking function, which aids remote troubleshooting and UEFI configuration.


The BIOS and UEFI firmware interfaces are two ways for computers to start operating systems. The Master Boot Record (MBR) is used in BIOS to save information about the hard disc data, whereas the GUID partition table is used by UEFI (GPT). UEFI is more powerful and shows more advanced capabilities than BIOS. It is the most recent technique of booting a computer, and it is intended to take the place of BIOS. In a nutshell, UEFI is the BIOS's successor.

You can also read about the Multilevel Queue Scheduling.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does UEFI support entail?

UEFI is a BIOS update that allows larger hard drives, faster boot speeds, more security features, and more graphics and mouse cursor choices than standard BIOS. UEFI enables higher-powered booting on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, allowing them to manage discs with capacities of up to 9.4 zettabytes.

What is the content of the EFI partition?

The ESP includes the boot loaders and kernel images, device driver files, and other utilities that must run before booting the OS. The EFI is a FAT32-formatted partition with a size of roughly 100 MB. This is where all of the apps required for Windows to start are stored.

Is it possible for an outdated BIOS to trigger a system crash?

BIOS typically adds functionality, fixes minor faults, enhances security, and so forth. Oh, and outdated bios shouldn't crash your computer. When a BIOS update fails, the motherboard is usually bricked. It's not that the hardware is bad; it's just that there's no way to modify the BIOS RAM locally anymore.

Conclusion

So, ninjas, we come to the end of the article with this.

The article was all about UEFI and how it is different from BIOS. We discussed various advantages of UEFI over the BIOS firmware. We concluded the question asked before beginning the article about the interface between the firmware and operating system.

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