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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..
Well, you got me to deal with the USB recovery drive tonight. And turns out, I really did have to deal with it - the 32 GB one could not be read, apparently the format was corrupted. So, I couldn't even c heck to find out how much was on it -- but see at the bottom for that answer, which raises questions.
So, I decided to start the process to make one and try the 8 GB flash drive I have. It wouldn't even see that one as possible. So, I tried my 16 GB one, and it accepted that. I made the recovery drive. I tested it, and it boots fine (after I switched to Legacy).
I checked how much is on it: 12.5 GB. (That leaves 2.34 GB, enough to add several restore points!)
When preparing to make the drive, I got a choice of whether to include the system files, and I chose to. That is probably what makes it that big, instead of 4-6-8 GB. With those, I could reinstall the OS from that drive, if needed, so the instructions say.
I note, in the Windows explanation of a recovery drive, it says:
"... you can use a recovery drive to reset (a drive) or troubleshoot problems." It uses the vague term "reset," rather than "restore" or "recover." Damn MS, you never know what they are saying. This would tend to leave people thinking that they really can do a restore, as I thought. Nope, because you can't access any restore points, at least I couldn't.
It also says : "if you backup system files, you also can reinstall Windows." So I did that.
The original 32 GB drive could not be read. I tried a few times. It also could not boot, so it wasn't that it made it some bizarre format I could not read, it just wasn't working. I gave up and made the new on.
Tested it again after done, still could not be read. Went to try to reformat it, it was not in the list of drives, could not be read. I took it out, put it in again, and now his time, my last time before giving up and taking it to my Mac to see if that would do it, it could be read. So, I reformatted it to FAT32. So, that should be good now.
Before I did that reformat, I checked how much was on it: 12.7 GB. Note, that is more than the 12.5 GB of my 16 GB one I just made. I guess I made it for the previous build, not the one of a month ago, so maybe that has something to do with it, don't know. But I gather the system files it takes are from my recovery partition, not from my Primary partition -- which is a shame, since that means if I install from that, it will not be the system state I have today. They should take those from the primary partition, MS knows what files to take.
And I have now claimed back 16 GB of flash drive space.
I go to Hotmail online, login with my Hotmail address and it takes me to an Outlook window, because Hotmail IS Outlook now. Outlook.com, not the application Outlook.
My highlights are black bold face. Your's is in blue, I wonder why. Possibly it depends on what theme you use, but I think I'm just using the default theme.
Yes, my Hotmail was updated last Friday or Saturday, and that is what created this issue.
There are plenty more details to the issue. In a nutshell, I actually e-mail out of Gmail. I bring all incoming Hotmail e-mails over to Gmail via a POP connection. Gmail pull then, rather than Hotmail pushing them (when I set this up, Hotmail did not provide for pushing them, but it does now). I have Gmail set up so when I send from there, it goes looking as if it were from Hotmail. And when people hit the Reply button, it will send the e-mail to my Hotmail address. That is, I simply use Gmail as the interface for my Hotmail, as if it were an email client on the desktop. I don't even tell anyone what my Gmail address is.
I actually started doing that some years back after another Hotmail upgrade that left me with big issues. Every time they have upgraded, I get an issue or multiple issues that make it so I can't use it, so I just use Gmail, because that is plenty faster anyway, and I don't have those issues. Gmail just works.
My problem is related to Gmail pulling my e-mails. They do actually come arrive in bold face, but in a few moments, Gmail pulls them, and with that, ,as of this change a few days ago, is then marking them as Read, they are no longer bold faced/highlighted. And if I look at the page, I don't have any idea I have new e-mail unless I it memorized what was in there last time I looked, which is ridiculous.
Hotmail never did that in all these years, it just started when they changed my Hotmail a few days ago. And MS all day long didn't want to even look at my Hotmail, all they wanted to do was gain access to my computer and go all through it themselves, and tell me to re-do the Gmail connection, which would cause it to pull 20 years of old email from my Hotmail when I set it up again, a HUGE ordeal to then clean up (I did it, took four hours to clean it all up). They would not look at their precious Hotmail or at their broken upgrade. It was MY fault, not their's -- all tech support, everywhere, always acts like that and wastes your time.
Hi,
Your Recovery Drive may work differently than mine due to the Gateway Partition, but there was nothing regarding RESET in the process I went through...
RESET is it's own separate function and gives the options to keep or not keep personal files... There was no such option with the Recovery Drive...
It did in fact reinstall windows... but only windows.. everything else was gone..
My email is highlighted in BOLD BLACK for the SENDER part of the email, but the SUBJECT LINE is in BOLD BLUE... just to clarify... I missed that when I first mentioned it...
Yes, yes, that's my point, the material explaining what the recovery drive can be used for uses the word "reset." But there is no such function included! They have Recovery and a clean install, and they do have Restore, but you can't access any restore points. But there is no Reset! So you do this expecting to be able to Restore, and then when you need it, you learn you can't Restore. More of MS not knowing how to communicate.
Yes, it will only reinstall Windows, all else is lost in a clean install.
Re Hotmail, yes, the sender line is Bold Black. I don't even know what the Subject line is, and since I'm not getting that now, I can't go look.
