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

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.

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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
    2017-04-13T04:26:03+00:00

    Hi,

    Here is how the Permissions are working on my Win 10 machine at the moment...

    For some reason I'm thinking things looked different on my other Win 10 machine...

    It may be that this one is a upgrade of Win 7 Pro....

    You might try this out on something unimportant without a lot of other folders within the folder you are modifying... Just to try it out and get used to the process...

    Here goes...

    It is possible to Change Ownership of any drive, folder, or file (Exceptions with some system files) by right clicking on it, select Properties, and then the Security Tab at the top.

    It is also possible to modify permissions, and add a user with permissions. This may be good enough to solve your problem, but you may need to change OWNERSHIP first...which I always do on my machine.

    To add a user, click on EDIT and select ADD....then

    1. Advanced
    2. Find Now
    3. Select User from list...Your user name, or any you want to add.

    To Change Ownership and add OwnerName as a USER

    Select Security Tab and then ADVANCED at the bottom.

    Here you can edit the permissions for existing users and\or add another..

    Click "CHANGE" next to the current Owner, Then....

    1. Advanced
    2. Find Now
    3. Select User from list...Your user name, or any you want to add
    4. Check the box "Replace Owner On Subcontainers and Objects" and hit "APPLY"...

    Once you have Ownership you can then ADD your Account as mentioned above, and Delete or EDIT the other Accounts...

    EDIT... I should mention that you may need to close all the Security windows you have opened, and then reopen them again for the changes to take effect before you can do the next step...

    For instance... If you change Ownership and hit Apply, you will then need to close all of the windows associated with the Security Tab and Properties, then reopen them, before you can edit anything else as the new owner...

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-04-13T14:19:31+00:00

    Hi,

    Have you tried clicking on the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the Security Tab ?

    You probably need to change the "Owner" of the folder before you can change any Permissions...

    In reality it may be easier to just try the Parted Magic and it's File Explorer, for which there is a shortcut on the Desktop that appears after booting with the CD..

    You would burn it to a CD and boot with it the same way as you did with Partition Wizard...

    It shouldn't be too hard to identify your USB\IDE drive...

    It will be labeled as something like sda1, or some other type name, but it will show it's size, and possibly any name you have given it... Once you click on the drive, it's contents will be displayed on the right\center part of the screen...

    It will show all the individual folders and files in a way you are used to seeing...

    Because this is a Linux based program, it doesn't recognize any of the Owner\Permission settings imposed by Windows... It treats all the files\folders the same...

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-04-13T16:01:15+00:00

    Yes, that figures. At the key point in the second thing you listed, to change the permissions, you are describing a different window than I have, yet we both are using Windows 10.

    On mine, I get into the Security tab, and things are different from what you describe.

    There is no word "Change" next to the current owner. It doesn't even identify there who the current owner is, maybe the top one in the list, but it seems to organize the list according to a priority system unrelated to who is the owner. System is always first on the list.

    Let us say in what I'm looking at, System is the owner. Well, I can click on it, there is no "Change" next to it. However, below the list, and I have three on the list I'm looking at, there is the line I mentioned:

    "To change permissions, click Edit," and following that is a button for Edit.

    OK, clicking that button, I get the window to change permissions. It still does not say which of those three is owner. In what I'm looking at, and I'm clicked into System in the list at top of that window, there is a list below of Permissions for System. It has a column for Allow and a column for Deny. Everything in Allow is checked, and it is all greyed out, so I can't even access that column. I can check into Deny, and supposedly that overrides Allow, so should do it. But it is so confusing because it leaves all in Allow checked!

    However, yesterday both columns were greyed out in what I was dealing with, both Allow and Deny, so I could not check into Deny. This is why I can't do it.

    I'm not sure changing the owner matters. Might that override all the permissions for others? I suppose I might be able to set owner as my user name. But I can't do anything if all is greyed out.

    They should just give you an alert, a warning about killing out such files, not bar you from it despite your being notified.

    I will check again today. And if I can't change them, I will try Partition Wizard.

    I did find another window that eventually did identify which is the Owner. Gee, you have to click so far into things, by the time you get to something, you no longer know what you are doing or where you are.

    But I still don't understand on those that wanted permissions from Administrator, why it wasn't getting that, I'm the administrator! Maybe if I change that to my user name instead, it will work - if I can change it today.

    I'll report in later today, will be otherwise busy this morning.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-04-13T16:27:27+00:00

    Hi,

    Changing the Security Settings requires a bit of tinkering specifically because it can cause problems... But the stuff you are messing with is going to be deleted anyway...

    even if you were able to change Permissions on most of the stuff, there may be files that simply won't allow it... Or you may need to do some of the sub-folders separately...

    Partition Wizard won't allow you to delete individual files... It will enable you to view them only... I checked that last night, but you can double check if you want...

    The Parted Magic program may be your best bet... it's free for the link I provided, and doesn't install, so there is no leftover stuff on your machine..

    here are some captures of what you should be seeing when changing permissions, although because you are running Home, and I am running Pro, there may be a difference...

    Here is my Security Tab screen with the "ADVANCED" button on the bottom...

    And here is what you should see after clicking Advanced...

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