What are BIOS and UEFI?
You might have heard about this term called BIOS. You might have also seen that blue screen that comes over when something is not working right. Even for installing a new copy of Windows, we have to go through BIOS.
But what do we actually need BIOS in the first place?
Read this article till the end and know what BIOS and UEFI really are.
What is BIOS?
BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. Your system does not understand your Operating System when you start your PC. Also, various checks needed to be done before Windows launches on your PC. So BIOS works like a connecting link between your OS (Operating System) and your PC’s hardware. BIOS is stored on an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), allowing the manufacturer to push out updates easily.
In order to access BIOS on a Windows PC, you need to press your BIOS key set by your manufacturer which could be F10, F2, F12, F1, or DEL.
Limitations of BIOS
- You can not boot (run Operating System) from a Hard Disk of more than 2TB. A 2TB Hard Disk was enough back in the day but not now.
- Booting is slow with BIOS.
To overcome this problem something called UEFI is used instead.
What is UEFI?
The full form of UEFI is Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. It does exactly the same work that BIOS does. But it is better than BIOS in many ways.
UEFI overcomes various limitations of BIOS such as:
- It can run on a storage device of up to 9 zettabytes, way better than the BIOS limit of 2TB.
- UEFI provides a faster boot time compared to BIOS.
- It looks more user-friendly, not a boring blue screen anymore.
- UEFI is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) based system which means you can use also use a mouse for navigation other than a keyboard. Whereas BIOS can only be navigated through a keyboard.
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