I think you are confusing EFI(bios replacement) with GPT(MBR partition table replacement), GPT is required to use EFI but not the other way around. So you can use GPT and the large(not unlimited) partitions it offers and switch back to BIOS. The caveat is that if you do so, there is a very good chance that you will confuse grub to no end and the system will not boot without additional laying of hands, grub reinstallation, etc. and so forth. On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 11:05 AM, <rhubarbpieguy at gmail.com> wrote: > > > I recently purchased a new box on which I wiped the drive and installed > Linux using efi. My efi partition is sda1, with Linux distributions on > sda[2-3] and sda4 as swap. However, if I don't have Windows, is there an > advantage of using efi? If I understand, I can enable legacy BIOS and lose > the efi partition. In that case I could have Linux distributions on > sda[1-3]. I believe efi has effectively no partition limitations, so I > could have efi on sda1, Linux distributions on sda[2-3] and sda5 as swap. > But I don't see the advantage of efi as four partitions is enough for me. > > Also, while I'll probably keep my current setup, I realize the danger of not > trying new things. I'd like to attempt dual booting with Windows but am > confused. The default partitions were: > > * > > free space 1 MB > > * > > /dev/sda1 ntfs 1073 MB > > * > > /dev/sda2 efi 104 MB > > * > > /dev/sda3 ntfs 134 MB > > * > > /dev/sda4 ntfs 489243 MB > > * > > /dev/sda5 ntfs 9550 MB > > * > > free space 0 MB > > > I understand sda2 and assume sda4 is the main Windows partition. But what > were sda3 and sda5? Can I delete them? Can I resize sda4 during my Linux > installation? > > I've not booted to Windows since 2002 and probably still won't after this > experiment. But I'd be interested in Linux users' input. > > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list