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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..
Yes, "at least." That's the issue. It says at least, but according to that article, it might not really require that much, its rounded up. When they say you need "at least" 16 GB of SPACE, that mans a 16 GB flash drive won't hold it, because that will have less than 16 GB of space on it. What they need to say is the real number or say "as much as."
I don't think the issue about the 4 GB is that MS is thinking of a different version. The message comes from THIS version of the software. If it is about a different version, that should be changed and talk about the version we're talking about, not something else. But I think it says "normally" only 4-6 GB. But maybe it doesn't say "normally."
I don't know what they put on the drive. I doubt it includes Windows-Old, as they don't even take restore points, so I learned the hard way!
So, you needed only 4.1 GB, but they say it needed 8 GB. That further clarifies that when they round, they round up to the next standard flash drive size, not to the next whole number. Either way, then I can probably get this done on a 16 GB drive instead of the 32 GB drive - and will do that at some point, reclaim my 32 GB drive for other things.
Gee, in your case, it made its own choice of were to do the recovery! That is DANGEROUS, as you describe. I think you should report that to MS, maybe they will add a feature to ask where you want to do the recovery -- that clearly is needed. They can;t expect people to know all you describe as "your fault." That's not really your fault. I think you're saying it favored a GPT drive, because that is requires for UEFI or maybe just for more than 4 partitions. Mine is UEFI and is 6 partitions.
Yes about the comment about it being junk for recovery. Mostly. I tried to use it, and I couldn't do what I needed, as I already explained. I'd have to look, not sure there weren't a couple smaller things I could run, though. And, it does let you get to Command Prompt to run commands, and with the command line you can pick the drive.
Actually, I'm not even sure what Recovery does. I feel safe with Restore because I've done it a few times. Their comments about it are not clear or detailed enough for me to understand whether I might lose things I don't want to lose.
Hi,
From what I have seen, and what is in the article, the size estimate states "At Least"...
So if it says "At Least 16GB" that should be enough...
As to why you need 16 and under some circumstances Windows recommends 4, is hard to say... When Microsoft says 4 in some of their descriptions, they may be thinking of a installation of 32 bit Windows, which is smaller than the 64 bit...
There is the issues of drivers as you mentioned... laptops in general require more\larger drivers due to all of the Power Saving features that are inherent with Laptops...
There is the issue of your Windows.Old folder, and whether it would be included in the Recovery Drive...
There is also the issue of Gateway's Partition, and whether or not it would be included...
I would think it would, but that is just a guess... Seeing how outdated it is due to Win 8 and 10 Upgrades, the Recovery process may not include it, even if it would normally...
Out of curiosity I just created a Recovery Drive to see what my loaded down Desktop would require... 8GB...
After creating the drive I checked it's Properties, and the files on the drive were only 4.17GB... So your's may require as little as 8.1GB, or even less, and still need a 16GB Flash Drive...
Without knowing, and having no way to test as to whether the Manufacturer's Recovery partition is included, and based on my test today, a Recovery Drive is worthless...
It ends up being little more than Installation media with a different screen...
On top of that, when I actually ran the Recovery Drive it messed up one of my 4TB hard drives... It didn't "RECOVER" windows to the same drive that it was on, but reformatted a 4TB drive that was being used for storage.. Fortunately I had it divided into two 2TB Partitions with one being empty...
That was partially my fault, but I was never asked which drive the recovery should go to... DUH... the one with windows of course... BUT NOOOOOOoooo...
The reason it is partially my fault is the Recovery Drive is a Flash Drive, and when you boot with a properly formatted flash drive with Win 8 or higher, my machine and\or windows, decides to Install Windows in UEFI BIOS MODE instead of Legacy Bios like it does from a DVD..
And because my 4tb drive was the proper GPT type drive, and the largest in the machine, Windows arbitrarily decided to use it as the boot drive and deleted all of the files that were on it...
Unless there is something incredibly appealing about a "Recovery Drive", I wouldn't waste my time... I wish I wouldn't have wasted my time earlier today, but I did in fact learn something.. My suspicions were correct... under most circumstances a Recovery Flash Drive is nothing but junk...
It deletes everything that is on your windows drive even when it works correctly...
All your programs, all your files, everything... It actually does less than installation media... You end up with a basic windows installation... Everything else is gone...
One thing it does do differently... It asks if you want to just delete the files and reinstall windows, or if you want to WIPE the DRIVE before reinstalling windows...
Wiping in the event you are getting rid of the computer, but which takes HOURS to do...
I just came across an article kind of explaining why I need a 16 GB USB flash drive to make a recovery drive. (And since it indicates I need 16 GB, I figured I had to use the next size up, a 32 GB drive, since a 16 GB drive never actually has 16 GB on it.) You might recall us talking about that many months ago, although with all we spoke about, that is hardly a standout. But I pointed out all in this story, including that MS says you can do it with a 4 GB flash drive, so why do I need 16 GB!
All I can gather out of that article is that, while there are a lot of factors involved in it, the main reason is drivers. I don't know why I would have so many more drivers, I don't do anything more than anyone else on this machine. Maybe something about Gateway simply needs more drivers.
But I saw it note that they round up when saying how much you need, so maybe I actually could do it with only a 16 GB flash drive.
Oh? I know when I was at 8.1, it had a bunch of restore points in there, none of which I created. They are set to be created automatically. The one in there from Friday was not from Windows Update updates, it was an update of my Gateway firmware and a restore point was made. I've had plenty of Windows Updates since the upgrade at the beginning of the month.
I'll have to look and see if I can find how often they are created -- maybe it is only once a month, and if so, that is way none just yet.
EDIT: Just looked, but did not find any place to set how often a restore point is created - will have to look more. But, I did find one thing, a place to turn on or off how long a window showing options for recovery displays during restart IF NEEDED. It was turned off. I just turned it on. I think maybe now with that on, it might show that page i need easier,maybe. Not really sure what that will do, but it should be somehow helpful when I can't boot, maybe easily get me to System Restore.
