Several BSODs after switching to UEFI?
Several BSODs after switching to UEFI?
This is my first time posting to the forum.
So, a bit of story time. My brother and I built a gaming PC in 2016 with an MSI Z170A Gaming M5 motherboard with an i5-6500 CPU. We started out with a 1TB WD Black HDD and it worked great. Fast forward a couple years, we install a 2TB WD Black for more storage. Later, we do it again.
Fast forward to a couple months ago, we get a 3060 Ti to replace the 960 we got originally but we put it off for a bit. We ran into some more storage capacity issues and had no more free drive bays so we get a 4TB Samsung SSD to replace the system drive. I get AOMEI to clone the drive but it repeatedly doesn't work. I contacted support and they sent me a bootable to do the clone with, and it ends up working. When we install the drive it looks like it can't access all of the free space and we couldn't extend the volume past 2TB so their was almost 2TB of unallocated space that we couldn't use.
I do some research and find out it's because the drive is formatted as an MBR drive and not a GPT. In order to convert it I decided to get EaseUS Partition Manager because it would convert the disk without losing data. I also found out that I would need to change the BIOS from Legacy (which is how it was listed in System Info) to UEFI. I follow the instructions and convert the disk, but it doesn't seem to work fully (I think System Info said it booted with Legacy and the disk seemed to still be MBR) and I thought I messed it up some how, so I tried it again.
When I was looking to switch the BIOS Mode it was listed as 'Legacy and UEFI' but I decided to switch it to UEFI to be safe. It seemed to boot fine and I tried to extend the main C: drive volume but it doesn't have the option highlighted. So, I use EaseUS to move the 300MB EFI partition to the end of the drive and extend the C: drive partition and it seems to work. Not long after that, I get a couple BSODs occur back-to-back.
After I managed to get the computer to boot back up, I run the DISM commands in Powershell followed by the SFC /SCANNOW command. It ends up finding a corrupt file and fixes it, so I restart the computer and it restarts successfully so I start doing some work on the PC. After my brother got home, he wanted to shut the computer down to use the Xbox (we don't have a TV to hook it up to so we swap the HDMI cords on the monitor).
When he tried to shut the computer down, it restarted. He tried multiple ways of shutting the computer down, but it would always restart, so he shut it down by holding down the power button. The next day, I researched what would cause it and came up with a couple of different potential causes and solutions (disabling Fast Startup and updating drivers). I looked up different driver updater software but found out they were most likely bloatware or malware, but I found a way to check some drivers with the Windows Updater.
Armed with a couple solutions, today I tried tackling the problem. When I booted up the computer, it looked like it was starting fine before I got a BSOD for SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION. After it restarted from that I got warning message that it seemed like the PC hadn't shut down properly, but after that it seemed to boot properly. I tried the DISM and sfc commands again but they found no issues. I was going to try the other solutions I'd found previously but decided to do a little more research. After a little bit, I tried to shutdown the PC and it shut down perfectly fine. Am I in the clear for any more issues?
The BIOS hasn't been updated since the PC was built so it's a version from 2016 and the only driver updates we've done were the ones automatically updated in Windows updates. Should I do anything like switching the BIOS back to 'Legacy and UEFI' or updating drivers/BIOS or reinstalling Windows?
Sorry for the very long post, TL;DR: I swapped my BIOS from 'Legacy and UEFI' to UEFI after converting my system drive to GPT to make use of the 4TB it had, and I've been running into some issues ever since. I just want to know if I've doing this correctly or if I've missed something obvious.
I would perform a fresh reinstall during a transition from legacy to UEFI mode, or as you mentioned you might encounter problems.
You can adjust it by following these steps:
This ensures you back up all your data first—something you should already have done. The tool is available in Windows; just type MBR2GPT in the search bar near the start button.
However, the most efficient and dependable method remains a complete installation. Others may have different views and be prepared to invest time in trying a conversion.