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UEFI boot requires a GPT drive, period.
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Not true as the UEFI standard itself has provisions for MBR formatted drives. From the UEFI Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unifie..._compatibility
Code:
Disk device compatibility
See also: GPT § Operating systems support, and Protective MBR
In addition to the standard PC disk partition scheme that uses a master boot record (MBR), UEFI also works with a new partitioning scheme called GUID Partition Table (GPT), which is free from many of the limitations of MBR
This is how .iso files on USB or DVD can boot in EFI mode. iso9660 filesystems are not GPT formatted. All modern OS .iso files can boot in either EFI or BIOS mode and have an /EFI directory with EFI bootloaders such as grub EFI. The UEFI firmware of a modern MB can find this /EFI directory through the pseudo partition table at the start of the .iso file.
It used to be possible several years ago to do an online upgrade from Windows 7 on an MBR formatted disk to Windows 8 and even Windows 10 which both use UEFI.
I downloaded the pdf file for the OP's MB. It is circa 2012 and predates Windows 8. It only supports Win 7 Vista and XP. Their Win 8 installation could be an online upgrade from Win 7.
