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I am trying for the first time to boot my Windows 8.1 laptop from the internal CD-DVD drive. I have a bootable CD in there, and yes, I do have the bios set with CDROM drive as first in the list to boot from. But when I try to boot from the CD, it won't boot, instead the computer gives me this message:
"ATAPI CDROM has been blocked by the current security policy."
(Its actually a DVD drive.) All it lets me do at that message is hit the Enter key to OK the message, and then it boots from the hard drive.
I have no idea where "security policy" settings are or what they are set for. What do I have to do to get this to boot?
This is a Gateway laptop, 2.2 MHz Intel Pentium processor, 4 GB RAM, 64 bit OS, with Windows 8.1 fully updated, and Windows Defender running and fully updated.
I have already looked everywhere I can find, but nothing seems to address this message or issue, as follows:
*I went to Help menu to look up "Security Policy." While the computer is giving me the message about "security policy," the Help menu has no idea what "security policy" is, it just comes up blank!
*I went to Control Panels/System and Security/Action Center/Change Windows Settings/Smart Screen/... All I found in there that might be involved is a setting to block anything downloaded from the Internet until I give administrator access. Well, the booting issue didn't allow me to give administrator access (yes, I am the administrator) when I tried to boot, I only could hit the enter key to OK. Nonetheless, I changed to: notify me but proceed (not a quote).
With that, I tried again, but it still would not boot from the CD, got the same message, so that setting is not it. I changed the setting back.
I see no other setting there that could be related by even a stretch. And the control panels should be dealing with the OS anyway, and this is happening while trying to boot from the OS on the CD, not the hard drive. That is, this is something in the root.
*I then went into bios area (UEFI Firmware) by sweeping in from the right and into Settings/Change PC settings ..., and found a tab in bios for Security. Looking there, there is a list of things, but it lets me access only "Supervisor Password." It was currently set as "clear," meaning no password. I left it as that -- surely I can't need a password just to boot from a CD, and the message I got in trying to boot from the CD did not allow me to enter a password.
Other settings in the Security tab were not accessible. The only ones they included that might be remotely related were:
*Password on Boot, which was set as no password. But again, the message I get with this issue does not ask for nor allow me to enter a password.
*Secure Boot Mode: Standard (It does not let me access to change that.)
Some others also were in the list that are not worth listing, not even vaguely related.
I then went into some other things elsewhere in the main settings called Startup Settings. The only thing in there that sounded the least bit vaguely related was "Enable boot logging." I punched F2 to go into that, but the machine instead restarted, and did not start from the CDROM, same message again. I went back to it, and it is still listed as Enable boot logging, does not instead say Disable - so I don't know if anything even got changed. I did not touch it again, left it as-is.
So, that's it. I've checked all the settings I know about. Nothing about this bit about "ATAPI CDROM has been blocked by current security policy."
I tested with two DVDs that I have booted from in the past on other Windows machines -- they also would not boot, but they did not give me that message.
I note, all three CDs/DVDs are being read fine by the DVD drive once the machine is booted in Windows 8.1 from the hard drive - so the issue is not that the DVD drive can't read the disks.
Where is this "security policy" set?! What do I need to do to get this to boot from the CD?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi,
So everything is back to normal... or at least working to your satisfaction ?
You seem to know more about manipulating your email than I do, but though I may be able to help by describing what my screen looks like !
I know how that kind of conversation goes... Not so much with Microsoft, but with my internet provider sometimes..
OK, got Partition thing, burned it, it boots -- after I switch to Legacy bios.
I'll use that tomorrow. Let me ask, since I don't want to read a book at the site to get a couple answers:
I will use it to try to get rid of that one partition that won't go away. So...
There are a few functions there that might or might not do it. Which do I use
*Wipe Disk. Not sure how extensive "wipe" is. Is that a complete erasure of the disk, including the partitions and volumes? (Isn't a partition and a volume the same? This application has functions to deal with partitions and functions to deal with volumes. One hard drive can have several volumes or partitions.)
*Delete all partitions. Is that what I want rather than Wipe? Is the difference between this and Wipe that one will eliminate all on the disk including the formatting, and the other will eliminate all except the formatting? If so, then I certainly would have to reformat. How, I don't see anything in this app to format a disk! It said it would.
In the dropdown menus, I saw that I can delete selective partitions. But I might as well do the entire disk, start clean. There's nothing on it yet.
Then it has Convert GPT disk to MBR. Do I want to do that?
And where do I find the tool to format disks? And I guess I would format the HDD to NT-- whatever those four letters are? I don't format that to FAT32, do I?
It is difficult to explain this -- because I have to boot from it to see it, and the get back to HDD and get on web to write. I can't see it while writing.
You might be having a Internet Problem somewhere...
I just downloaded the 64bit in about 5 minutes too...
Hi,
Try the 32bit version... that's the one I use... I just downloaded it as a test...
143mb in about 5 minutes...
It's different than RUFUS... RUFUS creates media... The Partition Wizard mostly deals with formatting, partitioning, and some specialty processes that Disk Management in Windows doesn't provide...
Because it's bootable and LINUX based, it can get around most Windows restrictions..
OK, thanks. That info is for future reference to look into if I want to make other bootable media.
I have to think Win 8.1 is making the recovery flash drive bootable, as it says. Maybe what you download from the site is a problem. But this is being made from my hard drive, not downloaded from the Internet, as far as I know.
Yes, I will see and understand more when I actually do this.
For now, I've just tried several times now to download Partition Wizard, 64 bit version. The download fails every time, gets zero KB. I have to think something is wrong with their Website. But then one last time, and I finally got it.
But now that I have it, it is an ISO. Looking in it, three folders. What am I supposed to do with it, burn it to CD -- I can't find anything at the website to tell me! They should mention I'm downloading an ISP to burn. (Coming from Mac, these things are often the installer on the dmg, which Mac uses instead of ISO, so when I get an ISO, I don't presume it is for burning.)
It looks fairly useful. At first glance it also looks like it will do what you said RUFUS will do. Is that so, I don't need RUFUS if I use this? I have to think you feel that RUFUS is better.
