Can't Boot From Bootable CD -- Bios Set Correctly

Anonymous
2015-11-02T05:57:29+00:00

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?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2016-08-24T15:35:47+00:00

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..

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-07-24T22:46:12+00:00

    Hi,

    I was mistaken about the June date... it should have been July...

    I don't think the Retail version of Win 10 is going to require a subscription anytime soon.

    I think the Enterprise version of Windows may have required a bit of that for quite some time... I know the licensing is quite different than the Retail and preinstalled stuff..

    I have been disabling Windows Update on most of my Win 10 builds, or more accurately, switching them to Manual... The problem with manual is that if an update pops up you don't want, once you manually check it's too late...

    I'm sure there will be a link to download the new build once it has been officially released... Dona Sarkar... the new head of the Insider Program, has said that the release of the new update will be staggered, which is how the November 2015 update worked.

    Some people were still waiting 6 months later...

    Her Windows Blog and Twitter postings have good info about that...

    I am currently running Insider preview 14393.3... Some people claim that this is actually the Aug. 2nd release... I have my doubts... I suspect there will be at least one more preview before the public release.

    This is a pretty stable build on my machines, but there are a lot of features that I haven't tried or use... like Cortana... I have no desire to hook up a microphone to use the feature, for instance...

    I also refuse to log in with a Microsoft Account, so I can't use some of the features anyway...

    My HP laptop actually runs better with Win 10 10586 (Nov 2015) than it does with Win 8.1..

    I would imagine that some time in the future you may be required to update to the newer versions to continue to get Windows Updates, but it won't be soon...

    That's already happened with Win 8... 8.1 is now required to get updates...

    It sounds to me like you figured out how to do something with chkdsk that I may have had trouble remembering... I know most of the stuff I know came from trying to fix disasters... I had a lot of help from HP Support Technicians with one of my machines...

    This was before something like Forums on the internet... It required hours of phone calls..

    Re: Fires... I remember some time in mid 90's when I lived in the South Bay, there was a huge fire up around Azusa... The ashes were so thick it was like snow... maybe a half inch thick before everything calmed down...

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-24T21:12:02+00:00

    Good to hear from you. I've thought a few times of contacting - but you did such a great job with me that I had no need to ask you anything, everything has been fine. :)

    You had mentioned that big update, and I think you indicated it was probably going to come by end of June. So, I watched, but it did not. Then right about that time, I saw news that it was planned for Aug. 2. Apparently they wanted to wait until after Win 10 was no longer free. This would be the first update for people who have to pay for Win 10.

    There also is expectation now that at some point, Windows will become a monthly subscription. I hope not! That would mean that you would no longer get any updates unless you pay monthly,  unlike in the past where you bought the OS and got updates for many years to come. Apparently you will not get updates without paying the monthly rent.

    That was worried about before, but now MS is making the Enterprise version a subscription model. With that, the expectation is that it is just a matter of time before all of Win 10 goes subscription. And this is why they were willing to give it free, because they are planning to charge you for it later anyway. It better at least run fine and dandy at whatever level they stop updating without me sending money. They must have we free people somehow marked as free, because surely they can't charge a monthly rate to new people now buying Win 10. How could they sell you Win 10, and presumably at a full OS price, and then tell you you have to stat paying monthly anyway?

    Re the Aug 2 update, don't see any reasons not to proceed to it -- unless you know of something. Might I continue to get updates free forever if I don't take it, the Aug 2 update will have something in it about that? Otherwise, I don't see any reason not to take it.

    Re the Internet connection for such a large download, I'm sometimes getting a better connection now. I would still rather download to desktop and then install from there, so no consideration of an Internet glitch fouling up the install. Do you know if it will be available for download, and from where?

    This is another issue of the Updates as handled by Win 10, which we already spoke about.  It is smart to delay such an update, until a while later after plenty of people have tested it -- let them get the kinks out of it first, then do it. Now the smart people who are willing to wait can't do so.

    Oh, all we went through really taught me a lot about Windows and this machine. It came in handy a few months ago when the machine just crapped out. I tried a few things, and in the end, the only thing that got my machine back was running chkdsk via command line. My troubleshooting/recovery disks were useless.

    And from that, I learned my bootable USB recovery disk can't do as much as I thought. I can't do a simple restore from that -- because the restore function will only take from the booted drive, and the USB stick doesn't have any restore files on it, those are on the main drive in the laptop, and it doesn't let you navigate to that. That's why I had to resort to chkdsk -- and thanks to all we went through, I knew about chkdsk.

    RE the fires, yes, the sky was completely filled later yesterday with thick smoke -- and as I pointed out to a friend today, while the sky is clear now, all those particulates will hang and in the air here for a long time to come, as no rain for many months to come to wash it out, and the weather pattern simply blows the air out to sea overnight and morning, and back inland in afternoon and evening - same air, nothing washing it, not good for the lungs. But at least it is clear today, they must have controlled that fire, or maybe the winds shifted dramatically and are blowing it in another direction, but that is unlikely, as per my comment about the typical air pattern here. The fire is about 30 miles north, in a desolate area not far from Vasquez Rocks, although it got near a population and hundreds of people had to evacuate yesterday. I think a lot of rattlesnakes are getting burned up but that fire.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-24T20:35:50+00:00

    Hi,

    Hope you're not choking on all that smoke out there...

    I just wanted to remind you that a big update is coming soon... Aug. 2nd is when it starts.

    If you're not prepared to go that route yet, you might want to consider disabling Windows Update in "SERVICES"...

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-03-12T02:34:24+00:00

    Hi,

    You mentioned something about Hibernation, and I forgot to reply on that subject...

    Here is a really good explanation as to how it works as compared to Sleep and Shutdown... http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hibernation-vs-sleep-explained/

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