Experiences with UEFI + Clean Win7 install on T520/thinkpads?

I read there are some issues/bugs with UEFI and thinkpads (like finger print reader not working?) but others seem to have gotten it to work. Are there any thinkpad users here that have installed a fresh copy of Win 7 with UEFI instead of legacy bios?

If you install with UEFI and want to switch back, can you just change setting to boot with "legacy bios" or do you have to reinstall Windows with "legacy bios only"?

I'm thinking of skipping UEFI all together if there are bugs/kinks to work out, but am curious if anyone here can post their experiences with this.

 

If you go down this path, make sure your backup/recovery software supports GUID Partition Tables.

 

Although I'm not totally sure, I'm fairly certain that I had UEFI enabled the entire time I've had my thinkpad, and my Win 7 clean install went just fine.

All the hardware works, all the drivers installed just fine, and so on.

 

I've done a UEFI clean install both with the T420 and the T520, both worked fine.
There is no going back, as the W7 install is either-or

I've encountered no kinks, bugs or problems. It's faster to boot.

In order to make the UEFI installation, though, you must find a guide and follow those instructions to modify the W7 installer (easy).

 

The easiest method I found is forcing the BIOS to be in UEFI mode only then using the Windows CD to install the OS as you normally would do. Along with others I haven't come across any major issues or major differences compared to the standard BIOS installation myself.

 

Just want to post an update in case anyone searches this topic in the future...

I wiped hd/deleted all partitions and installed Win 7-U 64bit in UEFI mode with no problems/errors. All drivers installed properly and the finger print reader works fine (bug seems to have been fixed), the only thing I haven't been able to check is if BitLocker works because I don't/haven't ever used that.

For what its worth, it does shave a few seconds off the bootup/post. The Thinkpad logo appears for a split second before you get to the "starting windows" screen. It's nothing to write home about, but still a noticeable enough difference for me to do this again on another thinkpad.

 

do you still get an increase in boot speed with UEFI if you don't have a SSD?

 

You should still get a faster boot because the speed up is before the machine even touches the SSD/HDD of your laptop. Its not that big though, maybe like a second or two shaved off the initial thinkpad screen. Once you get to the windows loading screen the UEFI benefits are done.

 

thanks for the reply, sonera.

sorry to go slightly off topic, but i was curious about the lenovo enhanced experience/rapid boost stuff? how much of a speed increase would that provide in a 7200 rpm hard drive?

 

I didn't notice any difference with the RapidBoot/EE on my Thinkpad with SSD, but I didn't time it either so I can't really say for sure. If anything it must've been a few seconds, it didn't feel that different (from memory)

However I did use EE/rapid boot on an IdeaPad z570 with a 7200rpm drive/i3 2310m cpu and that was definitely noticeable. The boot up was pretty fast and that was after all the updates/apps installed etc. It got to desktop way faster than another i3/2310m laptop I was using at the time with similar specs.

 

I have a 14 month old Lenovo T520. I wanted to do a system install by using the blue Thinkpad button, but says there are no files. I checked and the Q partition is empty. So, I purchased a new Window 7 64-bit install disc from Microsoft and want to wipe everything out and do a clean install of Win 7> All of this thread about UEFI has gotten me scared to try it now. Do I need to do something special, or can I just put the disc in the ROM and install as usual???
Thanks

 

T520 is Sandy Bridge cpu. So w/ my X220 I have some experience there.

Forget UEFI, in the BIOS go with UEFI/Legacy with Legacy first.

And do a fresh install of Win7. See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/668524-x230-t-owners-thread-139.html#post9139420

Also see:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sd-setup-bootup-error-help-3.html#post9075884

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sd-setup-bootup-error-help-5.html#post9088733

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...ashes-my-laptop-error-report.html#post9098136