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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..
Just FYI, the hard drive issue yesterday was not the external, it was the internal. So, not related to anything we did with the external previously. I've had that problem before after running chk dsk.
The precise way to know if there has been any corruption or changes is to check the sha or md5 of the original against the copy -- if there is any difference, it will have a different sha or md5. But I don't have any Windows software to check that. Still, the precise byte count should be fairly good too, although maybe not as good as the sha or md5.
At any rate, I will now erase and reformat the drive and into a single partition today (the previous partitions were because of the cloned files), then copy the files back. Then the next step will be to make a new, current image of Win. 10.
And then I will be ready to go up to this new Creator's Update, when I can get it.
Hi,
You seem to have more bad luck with your drive than should ever happen...
At least you are tp the point of being about done with it...
In reality, copying a file should not result in any corruption as Windows kind of verifies the copy as it goes... But the possibility exists....
When making copies or backing up something important, I do so to two different drives... Whether that may be due to corruption in the copying process, or a problem with the drive it was copied to, the end result would be the same...
I waste a lot of HDD space this way though... I could not survive with just one external drive anymore... I have several small boxes full of backup drives, some of which have Windows images that are over 10 years old...
Some of your difficulties may be the result of all the issues that happened with the drive when you started this process... Things were not going smoothly as I remember...
FWIW... I have only had maybe three images get corrupted over the years from some type of corruption from copying, defragging, or whatever, and I have done hundreds of them... There could possibly be more that I simply have never needed again, so don't know their status...
Just FYI. The overnight chk dsk became a nightmare. In the middle of the night, like maybe 3-4 a.m., I checked, it had run, and now had a message was on the screen that it could not boot, suggesting I try going to a restore point to restore to that point.
Of course, it would not go to a restore point. And then it wanted to start the chk disk scan all over again!
Never mind every last detail but I tried and tried, waited and waited for it to proceed on things, and it was about 10:45 a.m. before I was able to get it to boot again -- and I don't even know what got it to do so then. I wish there were a good way to get to Advanced Startup when you can't boot -- you previously told me to try a forced shutdown 2-3 times in a row, but that doesn't seem to work.
Then life kicked in, and I got ripped in multiple directions. Between the first and second wind of that, I plugged in the external drive, and I immediately got that message about scanning the disk. Hmm, I wonder if that is when I got it before, it wasn't talking about the internal drive, it was talking about the external? Either way, this time seemed to be talking about the external. I did not want to scan it, like you said, that could do similar to just copying it. And, if there is something wrong with that drive, I can't use it as-is. So, I decided I might as well do the nuclear approach.
First, I checked in Properties the exact byte size of the backup files. I then started copying them -- and went out in the second wind of things for a few hours. Just home, they are finished copying, and I checked the byte size, they are precisely the same byte size - so PROBABLY nothing even got corrupted as corrupted would make something different in size.
So, tomorrow I will erase and reformat the drive, a single partition this time, and then drag and drop the files back onto that, and check the size again and hope.
That should get the job done, and then I can do a new backup image of my drive to be current.
I'm disappointed I could not get it done as I should have been able to. But at least I will get it done.
Oh, actually, that is an issue that might be something on this machine. I said 6 hours because I've run it a few time. Its always just about that, or no less than 5 hours. It always seems to get hung up at I think its 19%. Because I'm experienced with it now, I know it gets hing up a long, longtime, hours. By then, I will be off to bed or something else. But it seems once it breaks through that 19% hang up, it does the rest pretty fast. So whatever 19% is checking, there must be some chronic issue.
Yes, I'm not really expecting any help from this. But just so I know, and make sure all is good before I start.
