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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,
Something else I just thought of... just in case... a little extra insurance...
Use the Windows Imaging feature to make an image as well... You may never need it, but since you have never tried this stuff before it, may be good to have...
This you access by clicking on File History in Control Panel... On the lower left corner you will see a "System Image" button... This does actually work. I just tested it on my Tablet...
It can always be deleted later once you are sure all your bases are covered.
Hi,
The don't check entire disk is in reference to when you would do a Recovery...
It is actually good for the backup image... The file in question is sort of a address list..
For some reason it causes problems when you select it when doing a RECOVERY...
Just do Partitions..
I wouldn't even consider trying to put multiple booting partitions on your External drive... You would be opening a can of worms that you would probably regret opening...
What you might do is to make the 100GB partition you mentioned and Recover your backup Image to it, and see if it will boot... You will need to switch back to GPT for that...
The problem is that if you have two bootable drives on your computer they can corrupt each other, possibly modifying the boot files so that in the future BOTH drives would be required for the machine to boot at all...
There is a way around that, but it is a pain... You would need to use Partition Wizard to make "HIDDEN, and make "NOT ACTIVE" your original Windows and EFI partitions...
Then you would need to make the ones on the external drive "ACTIVE" and "UNHIDE" them..
There would still be a possibility of problems...
OR... The SAFEST way... You could try physically unhooking your original HDD and just hookup the external...
Either way, you would need to change the Boot Options in your F2 or F12 Settings.
You could then use the remaining space to store images. They don't need their own partition... they are just files at this point...
I know nothing about using Acronis to Backup Files... I have no use for that function and have never tried it... I want images of Partitions and\or drives so that I can Recover my machine if Windows gets damaged...
If you want to be able to Recover your machine so that it is bootable, you need to do partitions, not files...
Running from a compressed image is not so hot... it really slows things down as the files need to be uncompressed for them to function...
BTW... the 15GB Recovery Partition is most likely the image your machine would use to restore it to Factory Condition, but that is just a guess... It seems to me that your machine has too many partitions already..
It may have to do with the method the manufacturer used to get Win 8.1 in the machine... I would think you would have four at the most, but if it is working I wouldn't worry about it..
I'm now done making the image twice, once as full of all partitions, the second time just the files image, and for that I don't get to select the partitions from which to get files.
Internal driver is 465 GB, and I guess second number is after formatting, 448.8 GB.
The full image of all five partitions comes to 82.2 GB.
The files-only image of the two partitions Acronis selects comes to 69.1 GB.
So about 13 GB difference.
Acronis selected the C drive partition and the efi partition for the file-only imaging. It did not take any of the three Recovery partitions (well, the way Acronis listed things was confusing, it suddenly changed how it listed. It might have actually taken one Recovery partition, but it did not list it as a partition, it listed it as a folder on the C drive). One of the Recovery partitions is about 15 GB, the other two are just MB size. If that folder Acronis listed on the C drive was one of those Recovery partitions, I don't know if it was the 15 GB one. But based on size alone, that sounds like the most important one.
It did not have me select which files to image. But since you mention it, I think there was a secondary box on the page with all the files listed. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it, but I suppose I might have been able to uncheck files I did not want to include in the image.
In Options, it automatically defaults to taking no .tmp files and another pointless format. You can change that to take those too. I just went with the default.
You say I can never boot from an image, no matter MBR or GPT drive. OK. But MAYBE Acronis now has a way to do it and it will boot? I will have to look into that, might be useful sometime. But surely it would have to be somewhat limited -- if not, gee, it is a compressed OS and other, people could get more on their main drive if they used that compressed version of the OS instead of the regular version.
I did not see it one way or the other, but let me ask: If I were to make two partitions on the external drive, would I be able to select a specific one of them to make the image to? If so, I might want to do that, maybe make a 100 GB partition, and do a full image to that. The second partition could then either be for another image, say Win 10 when I get up to it, or I could even "Recover" the image from the first partition to the second, and that second partition would be bootable, at least on this machine. Is that correct, possible? If so, I would want to make it a GPT drive, so it would boot, right? Does this sound like something intelligent to do to you? A second bootable drive, and I could run anything from it on the other drive, could come in majorly handy for emergencies, could even still access web to get -- well to find you to get me out of a jam. :)
So, now that I've done it, maybe I want to erase the drive and make it GPT, make three partitions (one each for a Win 8.1 image, another for a Win 10 image when I get to it, and a third), do a full image to one partition, and then Recover that to the third partition, which would be about 98 GB. Hmm, OK, I could only do two partitions if I want to Restore to one of them. I'm not going to do that just now -- but if I had another 50 GB on that drive, I would do it. If nothing else, I could do that just to test to make sure the Image is fine and dandy, instead of finding out the hard why when I need it.
Question again: Is there any detriment to doing the files-only image? Well, it will not get files from all five partitions, I guess that is one. OK. I guess I will always prefer to do a full image of all partitions. The other partitions are there for some reason, no point in losing that. OK, I will just always do a full image of all partitions. After all, the files-only image is too big for any USB flash drive less than 128 GB (next smallest is 64 GB -- too small). Since I already have the files-only image now, I will keep that, but going forward, doing both is just wasting time, I think.
IMPORTANT QUESTION: From your warning about not choosing the "entire disk" for a recovery. Which entire disk are you talking of, the target disk for the recovery, or the source disk (in this case, my external HDD)? I need to understand that -- is that for erasing the target disk? Or what are you saying? I guess if I want to Recover this image to the disk, I would have to erase the disk first. And are you saying don't erase the entire disk.
OK, if I'm not going to erase the entire disk, so uncheck MBR or whatever, what is it I will be erasing? All except -- what?
I used to live in leave-raking country. :)
Hi,
Sorry for the delay... I've been raking leaves all day !!!
Don't worry about the Archive thing... that is what I mentioned about Incremental Images.. It just backs up what has changed sine the "Archive" was made...
The image would be smaller, but you would need to restore the original, and then the incremental... Too much trouble, and more importantly, possibly more unreliable...
Also don't worry about the Sector by Sector... I tried it once and decided I liked the default method better...
The FILE Backup does just that... You would have been asked WHICH Files, like Documents or something...
In the future you could probably just do the partitions Acronis selects, or just the one with Windows and possibly the EFI.. Since the other partitions are small, it won't change much...
You will also have a choice as to which partitions when you reload (Recover) your HDD... You will be able to select all, or just Windows, or some combination...
Should you ever need to use the Backup Image, be sure to remember this VERY IMPORTANT detail... DO NOT choose the Entire Drive......
There may be a check box for the MBR... If there is one, Uncheck it.. For some reason it seems to trash out the Recovery and the drive is not useable...
A GPT drive may not have this check box... It might have something similar though.
That is something that I can't check since I have never had the need to image a GPT Drive... I have several, but not as my boot device.
The Images you have saved are not bootable as an image... They need to be reloaded to a HDD for them to be bootable... So the GPT\MBR issue is irrevelent for this drive.
I did see that Acronis 2016 has a feature that will supposedly let you boot from an image, but I'm not sure how... It would probably require something additional installed to your computer...
The MBR type is the tried and true type of HDD... GPT was created to overcome some of it's limitations, like the number of partitions allowed, and drives over 2TB.
For the purpose you are using the drive, MBR is probably best... All brand new drives are MBR... Older machines will not recognize GPT...
I kind of like trying to fix stuff... that's why I participate in the Forums... At one time I had an issue and turned to the forums for assistance...
I quickly realized that all though I am not a computer genius, I have a good bit of history with a lot of the problems other people were having...
It might not be a bad idea to make another Backup image and save them both...
Just be sure to give it a different name, and don't select ARCHIVE... Call the first one a trial run... Once you have confirmed that the first one works, you can always delete the second... Like the Partition Wizard... the second time through might work better..
Then you can compare the Properties of the two images and see if they match..
