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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,
FAT32 is sometimes the default for flash drives, but some are NTFS when new...
The standard Windows file type is NTFS...
When I mentioned FAT32, that was specifically for creating a bootable UEFI Flash drive with Windows on it... You need to use a tool called RUFUS and a ISO Image of the Windows version you want to use... In y case Win 8.1 Home x86..
The flash drive needs to be at least 4GB, but 8GB is better... Here is a picture of what mine looks like.. You need to pay close attention because when you change settings, sometimes ones you have already changed revert to something else...
I have had no luck getting Acronis to boot in my Tablet... The Windows 8.1 and 10 UEFI Flash drives booted properly... Just as a note... if you use the Windows System Imaging feature running Win 8.1... Your Windows boot flash needs to be 8.1..
If you later upgrade to Win 10 and save an image, you need a Win 10 bootable flash to reload it...
BTW... You don't want to boot with the same flash drive you are saving the image to...
It might be possible, but I would advise against it...
Saving an image to the flash after booting with the Acronis CD would work...
When you use the Windows feature, you make the image from within Windows...
Since you are overwriting the OS when you reload an image, you may need to boot with the Windows media...
Also... To the best of my knowledge, none of the Windows tools will create a flash drive that will boot into UEFI Bios... Regular BIOS is not a problem...
It is possible that the new Win 10 Media Creation Tool will, but I made one of those and my tablet wouldn't boot from it... It worked perfectly with the one made with RUFUS...
Something I do to keep the size of my backup images don, is to keep all of my Pictures, Videos, Music, and etc., on a separate HDD...
I don't go crazy like some do with this, but for the most part, all that is on my Windows Partition is Windows, Installed Programs, and whatever additional files goes with it... I have a Desktop and can add an extra drive though... It's a bit more work on a laptop... About the only option would be a external drive, or divide up the single one with a extra partition..
OK, so re size, my image might come down to 40-50 GB or who knows, maybe something a bit different. Even that is more than my 32 GB flash drive, so I still would need to use the hard drive. But I might try it first to the flash drive and see if I'm surprised and it fits. You say I need to format it FAT32, not NT--, whatever those four letters are for the typical Windows format?
Now, about the 8.1 flash drive you just did, did you do anything special other than the FAT format, do some setting maybe, so that that USB flash drive will boot in UEFI? Or did you simply use Windows to make the image, and it does boot, so Windows 8.1 must automatically make it UEFI-boot compatible? If so, that is good to know. And if so, I have to think this newest Acronis I have would also do that.
Do you think your's boots ONLY because you used the correct one of those three flash drive types? I think the 32 GB flash drive I have came out before Win 8, so I doubt it would be of this type you mention. I suppose I can try, if the image actually will fit on it, then I will test. If it doesn't boot, I will do it to the USB hard drive.
That flash drive booting might not be important right now, if my flash drive is not big enough, but very good to know going forward. Well, actually, I can make I think it is a recovery disk to that 32 GB drive, so I do need it to boot now, not in the future.
I might get to doing that today, will see.
Hi,
When I say the OS partition, it is usually C:, but Acronis may call I something else..
I call it the OS partition even though it has other files...
When I mentioned that the size of the compressed image would be slightly less than your USED Space, I misspoke a bit...
A lot of that USED Space is actually empty when you shut down your computer...
There are several hidden files that can use a good bit of space...
HiberFil and Pagefile... and they don't count since they will get compressed to about nothing...
So if you set your computer to show hidden files\folders, and System Files, they will show up on C:... Then subtract their size from your Used Space to get a better estimate...
My machine is using 54GB... the two files I mentioned are almost half that in my machine... So say I have about 26GB of actual files... The image is about 20GB...
The size of those files fluctuates a lot between different machines... Your's could be more or less...
BTW... I had the occasion to put the Windows Imaging feature to the test today on my Tablet... I had to make a UEFI bootable Win 8.1 flash drive to do it, but it worked perfectly... I was actually surprised..
I had to boot from Windows Media because the Image I wanted to Restore was going to overwrite the entire HDD... I haven't been able to get Acronis to boot on the Tablet yet... I'm still working on that...
That's actually why it took so long to reply...
OK, so size. I will have to look back at what that was that would have been 16 GB on a USB flash drive. But since my C drive alone is 98 GB of files, and five other small partition, a total of about 104 or 110 GB, then you think the total imaged size would be just a little less than that, maybe about 90-95 GB?
OK, then that means I have no choice but to do it to the HDD. And since there is plenty enough room there for the full imaging, that is what I will do.
Too bad that big -- I was thinking at 16 GB, I could do it to my 32 GB flash drive, and save the HDD for another use. I will also make a recovery drive via the OS to use for -- recovery and repair and troubleshooting obviously. :) But that would be to the USB flash drive -- not sure it is the right kind, will try and see if I can use it. If not the image will be all I have.
When you refer to just your OS partition, do you mean the C drive only? OK. Of course, there is more than just the OS on that.
I can't say thinks enough.
