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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..
Hi,
That's good news... Have you by chance tried ChkDsk again to see id there are still errors... I suppose there is a chance they may be gone... Well I guess if you didn't run SpeedDisk on the main partition, that would not have changed I don't think...
You may have that large 16% and 34% for the same reason I have 22%...
If it is a very large file in a small space, it only takes two fragments to result in a high percent... A large file that simply goes from two pieces to three pieces can explain the 16 to 34% jump... Exactly why that happened is hard to say...
BTW... I should mention that it would be best to plug the external in after the machine has booted... In reality it would be best to not have two OS drives hooked up at the same time at all, but not much can be done about that under the circumstances...
Also be sure to remove it before shutting down, although that isn't necessary if Fast Startup is turned off...
You kind of lucked out that your friend had the Norton handy...
The Phoenix named Hope arises from the ashes.
I did get hold of Norton, I believe it is a 2013 version, Norton 16.
I installed. It installs as a 30-day free trial. I ran it.
I ran Dick Doctor on the C partition, and defrag-Speed Disk on all the partitions (since I can't identify from the list which is the one we have been trying to reduce). I also ran some check on registry files, and think maybe something else.
I just ran an Acronis System Report - and two things I realized.
One, the other day, I was confused by the number for free space, it actually said I had 321 GB of free space now, after running chkdsk! Well, after running Disk Doctor (I did not run the defragging on the main drive, OS says 0%, and it would take a long time), Acronis System Report now says there is 325 GB of free space. That's pretty good, considering the OS C Drive Properties says the entire drive has only 324 GB of free space.
This seems to have fixed the free space issue. I might be able to do the Image!
Unfortunately, I can't run System Report on the external. But I did use Cmd Prompt to run chkdsk, so I have to guess it did the same benefit there as running it your way on the internal did.
Tomorrow I will try Norton on the external, if I can - it was not plugged in today, I will have to see if it shows in the list when plugged in.
After that, test the Imaging again.
This is very promising. And in fact, it I hadn't misread the numbers the other day, I would have thought we already were there.
The numbers: System reports shows them as:
The other day: 84195642 (321G)
After Norton: 85198855 (325G)
I looked at the first number the other day and that ought that mean 84 GB. I somehow missed seeing what was in parentheses, which is 312 G - G for GB.
I also note, the Norton defragging reduced that one partitions from 34% fragmented (after the Defragger increased it from 16%) back down to 16%. I am happy at this point to simply have it back where it started.
So, sleep well. :) I think tomorrow or the next day, we might finally be done! If not, we are done with all we can do, I believe, other than start at the beginning (I appreciate you suggestion of the Win 10 approach, but if I'm going to do that, I will do it all from the beginning so I have all in the end -- do it once and only. But no way I could get to that any time soon.)
Of course, I will keep you posted. Hey, if we're done, you surely deserve to know about it! :)
Hi,
I'm having a bit of a withdrawal attack this evening too !!! I haven't had a smoke for 12 days now...
In order to migrate Win 10 to the external might require deleting everything on the drive... I think it would be a good idea to try and keep the Acronis Image of Win 8.1...
Maybe you could copy it to the internal, and then delete everything on the external, and then Migrate the Acronis Image back to the external along with everything else...
I personally don't think the Migrating thing is worth a whole lot other than the fact it gives you a backup of your personal files... I would be more trusting of Acronis, but you never know 100% about anything...
I would think if the corruption was a issue for Acronis, it would not have made the 1st image... Maybe try a Acronis Image of the Win 10 again and see what happens...
I do know that Norton's SpeedDisk resolved a problem I was having years ago, that is very similar to yours... I don't actually know how, but in the process of defragging the drive and shuffling things around, it got fixed...
If Smart Defrag can detect and delete ChkDsk fragments, maybe in the process it will do the same thing... I suppose if you get ahold of SpeedDisk 1st, you might give it a try...
Let me know how things go... I usually check my mail every morning, but I do miss a few...
I was thinking that very thing, that the computer is working fine as-is, we simply know there is somethign wrong because of the space issue and whatever check I ran showing the corrupted files, and that after running chkdsk, it did improve, just not all the way yet. But otherwise, i is fine and dandy, would never even know if I hadn't tired to make the backup.
Even if I wanted to do it from the beginning all over again, (I can't do that now, March is going to too busy, and thereafter might be busy too, but I know the upcoming month will be. With that much to do, I can just want until I have a problem and do the big thing then. Meanwhile, I have all up to end of January or Feb 1 or whenever I did the Win 10 upgrade, which is mostly applications added and of course all the updates.
As I'm writing, another idea occurred to em, for at least in the meantime. Manually kill out all the 8.1 migrated files and partitions - and then migrate Win 10! Maybe Partition Wizard will put it all on there. That's then a backup, although the Image approach is preferable for various reasons, including for subsequent updated backups -- although then I cold probably do that for simply the primary partition, so just replace that, I don't think anything else gets updated.
Meanwhile, still awaiting a Norton. And will get to trying your defragger, but I'm not expecting that to solve the problem, but it might help.
Of course, once I do these last few things, I will try Acronis again -- if I'm lucky, maybe it will fit this time. I gained about 84 GB of space from running chkdsk on the internal, if I got the same not he external, I could fit the 73 GB file. A st will tell.
But for now, the defragger, get rid of the identified corrupt files that I can do safely, which might be al or or all but one, and hope to get hold of Norton. After that, nothing more to do but test it.
But cant get to it today.
BTW, I realize last night you were having a withdrawal attack. :) I was going to respond, but it didn't seem productive. :)
