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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..
I have never tried to recover to the internal drive -- I don't want to ruin that!
Glad you mentioned making the drive Active I saw that in Partition Wizard last night. I was wondering if that was why the partition to which I recovered the OS that one time would not boot -- maybe it needed to be made Active?
I will get around to making the external a single partitions, imaging to it and trying to recover to it. It will probably fail. I'm sure I will think of a couple other work arounds to try, and they too will probably fail.
In the end, I will at least keep an Image on the external -- and hopefully it will just work if ever needed to get the internal up and running again. I won't know it is good until I need it, though.
Meanwhile, I want to download that stuff from gateway you sent links for. You seemed to be saying that will install the OS anew on my machine. If so, that is what I need to be able to install Win 8 on this machine. It would be easier to mage and recover, so I don't have to get and install all the stuff I have installed on this machine. But at last I could do that. Bu I must have misunderstood what you wrote, as I find it hard to believe they are giving me OS 8 full installer free -- well, not really really was purchased with this machine.
Hi,
You wouldn't be able to Recover an image to the drive the saved image is on, I don't think... If you feel adventurist you could try it...
The problem with your IDE drive is not related to wear and tear...
Either it, or your adapter simply are not handling the GPT Disk type properly...
If you want to use your drive to save backup images, it will be fine for that...
It might be better to put it back as MBR though...
Most likely any Acronis image you save to it will Recover properly to the internal drive, but you did get an error when you tested that before if I remember correctly.
That again may have been related to the external drive not handling GPT...
You could switch it to MBR... save an image to it, and see if it generates an error when go through the process to Recover your internal drive...
My laptop is a good example... I am now on the 3rd to upgrade to Win 10 build 10586... It is only the saved Acronis images that enable me to start over...
Feel free to ask if you have any more questions... Sorry I was a bit cranky today...
It's not been one of my better days !
BTW... If you should ever Recover a partition to one of your drives and it won't boot, or you get an error about no OS found... Boot with Partition Wizard and make sure the partition you are booting to is set to "ACTIVE"...
This could be the EFI partition on your type of machine, or the partition with Windows... Try EFI first, then if that doesn't work switch it to the OS partition...
If it looks like it is going to work, it probably will if you ever need it...
Yes, seemed to me we must be at a dead end. Yes, maybe it is IDE -- if not, we certainly have no other idea.
Re the drive, it has never been used before, this was sitting on the side a long time, sealed in the box. I just took it out for this. Its never had a clone on it or anything else, is pristine. But I know my Mac will clone to it -- mine is an older Mac, uses IDE, I clone to a IDE external all the time (but much smaller than this one for our job).
I can Image to this drive. I just can't test it to know it is good. I presume what I image to this drive could be Recovered to my internal drive and would boot? Sure would be nice to test that on the external so I could be confident. But we no can do that.
In fact, when we tested to see if the Files Recovery would boot, it might not have because of this second-partition problem -- that's the partition it was on. I do a files clone on my Mac all the time and it works fine; but that is cloning, and this is recovering, two different things.
For that matter, I could see if Acronis wants to do a partition clone but reduce the partition size to fit this drive. From what you've told me, I'm not sure there is any advantage to that though.
The issue we're having is with reaching the second partition -- we seem to be limited with what we can do with that partition, at least via Acronis we are limited. Hmm, I could try it again, but use Partition Wizard to do the Imaging and Recovery.
Let me ask, suppose I made just one partition on this drive. I would do the image to that. Would I then be able to Recover the image to that same partition?
Because these tests we've been running seem to indicate we can use the first partition, just not a second one. And I don't have any other drive I could move the 82 GB Image to. Would it Recover to that partition and leave the Image untouched? I suppose I can test it by doing one partition, making the image, and then seeing if it will do that. I'm doubtful it will allow recovering to the same partition the Image is on. I'll bet recovering will delete anything on the partition you are recovering to -- but maybe not.
Not today for that. Maybe later in the week.
We didn't get it done. But you have been amazing and very generous with your time and effort. Thank you very much. Hey, I've at least gotten familiar with this stuff now.
Oh,m of course, if you think of something, post here -- it will message me you posted.
Hi,
The problem has to be the drive... it's not that it isn't useable at all, but not how you had hoped... Trying to create a bootable partition seems to have opened a can of worms..
You could maybe use it for a bootable drive, but not backup images, or Vice Versa, but not both... I'm thinking the controller inside the HDD doesn't know how to handle GPT with more than one partition...
And again, it may be your adapter... That type of hardware was designed to use MBR...
Did you ever try booting with it when you had the Clone on it ?
BTW... I've been upgrading my laptop to Win 10 build 10586... That's why I didn't reply sooner... sorry.
I ran into a problem with that as well, and need to start over...
Oddly enough... by reloading a Acronis Image of Win 8.1 for the 2nd time today...
