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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,
What is the name of the last folder ? If it is System Volume Information, you don't really want to delete it... Even if you do, Windows will create another...
There are two folders that Windows Creates shortly after a drive is formatted...
System Volume Information and $RecycleBin...
Recycle Bin is self explanatory... System Volume Information may contain stuff like the directory of the contents of the disk...
It is possible that the only way to be rid of the System Volume Information and\or $RecycleBin would be to reformat the drive... And then Windows would just create new ones...
The smaller files may not take of much space, but can cause fragmentation of your new images, so it would be best to delete them as well, if possible...
One of the reasons you are having so much trouble deleting stuff is because the drive is a clone of your OS drive, and it's files are being treated as such... A OS drive...
It is normally not a problem deleting folders... except System type files...
Hi,
I should mention after doing some checking, that sometimes when you take Ownership of a Folder and even Add your Account with Full Permission, the change doesn't get applied to some of the files\folders within the original folder... Even though it should...
If that happens, you will need to go to the sub-folders and\or files, check to see if you are still the Owner, which you should be, but may need to Add your Account again...
A real pain I know, but that is how it seems to work with System Files...
I don't know why pmagic is not deleting them though.... unless it is detecting that they are required for the remaining files to be usable...
I don't know the name of the folder I need to delete because I changed it to gibberish way up front. However, it is not System Volume Information, that is still there invisible. That is a different one. I am not trying to kill out any of the invisible files or folders.
The one I'm trying to kill out has two folders left in it - all else that was in it has already been deleted. Those two folders are:
System32
WinSxS
In System32 is:
unishare.gpd
unishare-pipelineconfig.xml
In WinSxS is a lot of folders for AMD64, all of which appear to be empty. But I get different readings for how much is in it in Parted Magic as compared to what Windows says. And Windows is now saying less is in there than it said before even though I haven't been able to delete anything more. I know, that makes no sense.
Invisible folders are:
Recovery
$Recycle Bin
System Volume Information
Invisible files outside those folders are:
autoexec.bat
BOOTNXT
Documents and Settings
hiberfil.sys
pagefile.sys
swapfiles.syds
In Parted Magic, when I try to delete either of those folders, or folders in them, or any final files in them, I just get an Error message saying either that there is "No such file or directory," or "Input/OutputError." But of course there is a file/folder, it is right there to see, and is there in Windows.
As it is, I do not have enough space on the hard drive to add one more drive image, a current one. If I kill out all, I think I will have enough.
But if I don't have enough space to add a current image, then I have to kill out one I already have! If so, then there is nothing lost by copying them over to the internal desktop, and then reformatting to erase the entire external drive. So you see, I have to kill this stuff out, or I have to copy the images over, and then reformat the drive -- the nuclear approach.
And meanwhile, Windows doesn't seem to want to let me do anything to the permissions on the folder or anything in it. I can't change them now. (In Parted Magic, it has the permissions assigned to Root.)
The cloned files should have taken up more space than an individual image, so deleting all of that should leave plenty enough space for adding one image without having to kill out an existing one first -- I was deleting the cloned files instead of deleting an existing image, I shouldn't have to do both.
How can I delete this folder?
Hi,
I think maybe the files pmagic says are in the ROOT may be pmagic's files... That is the first thing that appears when you select File manager...
The folder you are trying to delete would have been "Windows" if it has System32 in it...
Try taking Ownership of the System32 and WinSXS folders and then deleting them first...
There may still be individual files inside those folders you will need to take Ownership of as well...
With all the renaming, permissions, and etc., things may have been scrambled enough that it can't read\find the file directory...
BTW... the files in the ROOT of the drive you are trying to delete would be the...
Invisible folders are:
Recovery
$Recycle Bin
System Volume Information
Invisible files outside those folders are:
autoexec.bat
BOOTNXT
Documents and Settings
hiberfil.sys
pagefile.sys
swapfiles.syds
You want to delete those if you can... They are all leftover from your cloning...
All except $Recycle Bin and System Volume Information
