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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..
How did this response get out of order? Anyway ...
I will check that when done. What you wrote is what I did -- until MAYBE at the 4th screen. I didn't specifically look for, but did not notice, a box there for Full Disk. I did check all the boxes in the list for the five partitions.
But then it would not let me select anything on the external drive, whether the 125 GB partition or the other space with the Image on it.
This files recovery still has some time togo. The time it says is worthless, Acronis seems to be in another dimension of time. An hour and a half or so ago, it said 1 minute and 32 seconds left, and now an hour or more later it is down to only 1 minute and 29 seconds left. It looks like another hour or two.
Other than formatting, I don't know what to do to make spec unallocated or not. What is "unallocated" anyway? It a formatted but empty 125 GB partition. The other space on the disk also is formatted.
OK, if the files recovery won't boot, I will erase all and use Partition Wizard to make it GPT, make the partitions,and after that do the formatting.
But then I would have to format twice, once for each partition.
I'm happy with Imaging -- if it will recovery to a bootable disk.If not, it is a 100% waste of time and space. The entire point is that it be bootable. If I can't get that with Imaging, then I have no choice but to consider clicking again -- not because I prefer it, juts because it would be the only possibility.
I don't think this is a trial of Acronis. Surely you can't have a trial of Acronis on disk -- it would never expire that way.
As for the feature of recovering to a smaller drive, there is nothing in this saying anything about that -- you gave me the impression it is something automatic behind the scenes.
Hi,
We were probably both writing at the same time !!! It happens.
That is correct... you would have to format twice... once for each partition...
You basically create the first 125GB partition and format it, and then create and format the larger one...
Some partitioning programs will let you create the partitions and not format them, and some require that you format them as part of creating the partition...
Unallocated space is a unformatted partition... They are normally colored black.
When you delete all of the partitions on a drive for instance, what you then see is "Unallocated" space.
If your Acronis is on a Retail CD, then it should not be a trial... If you installed a trial version of Acronis and made the CD, it may have limited features...
Acronis does automatically Recover to a smaller drive... unless you have a trial version..
Then that capability is disabled until it is Activated\Purchased...
It's in the fine print somewhere on their website...
In addition to the boxes for the five partitions, the was probably a box at the top for the "Disk"... This basically just selects all of the partitions... The problem is that there may be an additional box that you don't want to select...
I can't check this... I don't have a machine running UEFI with a GPT Disk to test it...
In reality... before I would use a CLONE, I would use the Windows Imaging process...
I do prefer imaging -- provided it works. That determination is pending.
Don't expect any more update until tomorrow some time. It is still doing the recovery, and looks like a couple hours longer to get it done -- that REALLY is slow -- and you think Acronis is faster than the OS.
Re the formatting, l'll do it again, if this recovery doesn't boot, but I'm sure it was right. I'm pretty sure I formatted the entire drive before I did the partitions. Also, formatting automatically creates a partition in this OS -- the entire disk is chosen by default, but to create a partition, you simply format again and change the default size to what you want it to be -- I changed it to 125 GB. That is, you can't make a partition other than via formatting.
Do you think using Partition Wizard is better than using the same function in Acronis to do it?
Re the version, is there anywhere for me to chick? Maybe find a build number? What you're suggesting is that if it is trial, it won't have the background feature to shrink the partitions to fit. And thus, it wont let me do the recovery to a drive that is not large enough for that.
I will check for that box you mention on that page -- but have to wait for the recovery to finish.
