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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,
You might have better luck using Partition Wizard or Acronis Disk Director....
One reason is this... GPT Disks have a hidden 128mb partition that is used for addressing it's contents..
Sometimes the Windows process puts this partition FIRST... This can cause boot problems... A lot of the other tool put it LAST...
Part of the problem may be where you located the 125GB partition... It should be the first partition on the drive to be more reliable for booting...
You should be able to select a Partition Size when you first format the drive...
There should be a step where you can select the size...
It should be the first screen you see after selecting the drive and hitting NEXT..
I don't have a clue as to how to check a Acronis CD to see if it was\is a trial or not...
Unless you buy a Retail version that comes on a bootable CD, you have to make your own CD by first installing Acronis...
I would think a person would know if they made that CD with a trial version, or if it was properly a activated...
There are downloads for Acronis ISO's for bootable media all over the internet...
The problem with this is that a person has no way of knowing how the iso for the bootable media was made...
The Recovery finished overnight last night. It took I think a good 12 hours, maybe even more, not sure exactly as I was sleeping. That's LONG! I don't want to have to do a lot of that.
I will test it out later. I have unplugged the external HDD. I will change bios back to UEFI, and then boot the internal. I then will look at what is on the disk, just to know, and to know if the recovery went to the 125 GB partition.
Then I will take out the battery, and then take out the internal drive, and then test to see if the external will boot. It will be the only bootable anything in the machine.
And then I will have the key report for you.
Yes, when first formatting the disk, or any time you format, there is the early window where the disk size, or I suppose the full disk partition size is listed, and you can change that size.
I do not get any option to pick where the partition is. If I take the unformatted drive, and first do the 125 GB partition -- but I think you previously said to format the full drive first -- how would I format the rest? Would Iook at what size it says it is, and then make a partition of that size? If I do more than that, it would erase or reduce the 125 GB partition. But if I do it like that, there inevitably will be some unallocated space between partitions, or some reduction of the first one, even if miniscule, since the number the present when looking at the disk are rounded off.
But now you have me thinking -- and that could be dangerous. If I am to format the entire drive first, then create the 125 GB partition, well, formatting the entire drive means making the entire drive a single partition. Then I make the 125 GB partition, so I guess that automatically reduces the full-disk partition? That's how I did it, without thinking of it serving to reducing the full-disk partition.
OK, I just tested -- and it failed, would not boot the external drive.
I did as planned: I took out the battery, then took out the internal hard drive, plugged in the power line, plugged in the external drive, started the computer. It would not boot, just went to Boot Manager, which saw no bootable drives at all.
I put the internal drive back in, and the battery, and then tried again, had an issue with the same response, no bootable drive seen, would not boot! Scary.
I took out the battery and internal drive again, and then put them back in. This time, it booted the internal drive. It was in their solid thee first time, but I guess it was even more solid the second.
I then plugged in the external, and the computer sees it fine. It has five folders for the five partitions. BTW, it sees them as folders, not as partitions.
I went to open the C folder, but could not, said I did not have the permission to open it, and to hit the Continue button to set the permissions. I hit it, and it took a while to go through everything and set permissions.
I then opened that C folder on the external drive. I looked at the folders in it and the files, and compared to the C drive on the internal. All looked the same (I did not go into any of the folders to look), except hat the external drive has one extra file: autoexec.bat.
OK, well, is that file creating any issue? What is it, how did it get there? I am wondering if maybe it is an invisible file on the internal drive, and if so, should it be invisible on the external. Will that file block booting somehow, either because it is not invisible or maybe because that's its only purpose, to block booting?
I clicked on that .bat file to see if it would open. I simply got this message:
"This app can't run on your PC.
To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher."
I have no idea what that means, but if it won't run on my PC, well, does it need to run in order for the drive to boot? I have a feeling all that message means is that I don't have any application that can open any .bat file.
So, I guess, as we already discussed, I should erase and re-partition and reformat the drive. Then do the image again.
And then? I guess I have to look into this version of Acronis I have to figure what it is. In fact, I suppose that is the first thing to do.
Meanwhile, it appears it won't be until spring that I can get this accomplished -- literally. Its been three months so far, and I'm back to square 1, nothing accomplished in three months of research and effort so far, and now have to start again at the very beginning.
This alone is a huge reason to not use Windows! Like I said, in Mac it would have been done straightforward and easy in a half hour. Well as a clone in three hours on my slower Mac, and clone back in three hours, not 12. Just looking at what I know is going to be massive amounts of more time to deal with this, it is a great reason to just throw this laptop the garbage -- tomorrow is pickup day.
I have maybe four hours today I can deal with this --then I have to get into a big project that will take up lot of time over the next few weeks.
Hi,
The autoexec.bat is what is called a "Batch" file...
It runs a series of commands... If you right click on it and select "EDIT" you should be able to see what the commands are...
You should be able to do the same thing by right clicking on it and selecting "OPEN WITH" and then select "Notepad"
I'm not sure why it would be different than the original... I see the autoexec.bat a lot in my C:\ drive, but looking at my Win 10 at the moment, it doesn't have one....
I didn't think it would boot from a files recovery, but now we know...
You also know how to recover "Files" only should that ever be necessary...
When you reformat your external drive by which ever method, do the 125GB Partition first... You might want to make it 135GB to make sure you have 125GB left...
There is a difference in the numbering...
After you do the 135GB, go back into Disk Management... as an example... and right click on the remaining partition which should be identified as "Unallocated" or something similar... Then format t like you just did the first one except for the file size..
BTW... after you do the 135GB, double check to see if it is near 135GB and that you didn't enter the size wrong... It happens.
Recovering an image should be faster than Files, but I couldn't guarantee it...
You might want to use Partition Wizard... because of the reason I mentioned before..
I don't know if Disk Management puts that 128mb partition first or not...
I know if you create a GPT Disk while installing Windows, it DOES create one, and it can cause problems...
Part of the problem is that you are on a learning curve with Windows... this kind of thing is a piece of cake for me to do... Like you mention about the Mac...
I had issues when I first started doing imaging until I got it all figured out...
I can recover an image to my machine that is using a SSD in 15 minutes...
I have had it take as long as 45 minutes to create an image, but that is rare...
