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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..
You confuse me with the talk about the win 8.1 Recovery partition and using it with Win10. Why ever would anyone be foolish enough to use a recovery partition from one OS on another OS? That is only a formula for corruption. That partition would be for use on Win 8.1 only -- unless you are going to enlighten me about Windows.
But are you saying Gateway allows me to spread it over four DVDs? Or, what set of DVDs, burn what on them? That would be handy.
I have restored my OS a couple-few times, to get rid of viruses. So, it's that fresh within the year, maybe within the past six months.
What do you mean by:
"Once you have upgraded to Win 10 and it has activated, you can do a clean installation without any backup at all... "
A clean installation of what?Win 10 would already be a clean installation. How would install, with what if not a backup? Are you saying those disks are the OS to install? How many disks would we be talking about? Are we talking of 300 MB spread over single-layer DVDs?!
I just had a disaster, so I might not get back to any of this for quite a while. I'm in the midst of a big printing project,and printing just crapped out. Now a ton of time to try to figure that out and get it working, or have to replace it.
Hi,
That CoreTemp 1.0 RC6 is a 3rd party temperature monitoring program I had been running on the machine while it was Win 8.1...
After removing it everything went smoothly... There were no error messages of any type.. The machine would just freeze...
I am currently typing on the machine in question that is now running the newest Win 10 build...
As far as your question goes... If you are running Win 10, that partition is of little use... In fact, after the upgrade, the process that would use it probably won't work anyway... BUT... it is the only way some people have to restore their machine in the event of a major failure of windows...
It is also useless if the HDD fails... That's why it is recommended to burn the set of DVDs... It's not so hard to reinstall windows, but getting it back to the way it was is a lot more work...
Since you have an image that can restore your machine to Win 8.1 it is not that big of a deal... The primary issue is getting all of the preinstalled stuff back...
Even in your case... your machine is a couple of years old, and so is your image as a result, so if there is any unknown problem at the moment, or a incorrect setting, you will be reinstalling it\them whenever you use you image...
The 15GB partition and\or Disk set can return it to new condition... That is when I prefer to make my images... when everything is fresh...
Once you have upgraded to Win 10 and if there is a problem, you can use your image to Recover Win 8.1 to the way it is now, or use the Disk Set to restore it to Factory...
Even Rolling Back from Win 10 have result in corruption of the original OS..
Sometimes restoring the machine to factory and starting fresh is the best option..
Once you have upgraded to Win 10 and it has activated, you can do a clean installation without any backup at all... The only issue would be how dependent you are with Gateway features that would be lost...
Will do. That won't be today.
And I hope MS fixes that 1.0 RC6 before I get to downloading Win 10. I have enough headaches already.
One questions about what you've said before. You were saying that once I go up to Win 10, I lose that 15 GB Recovery partition forever. OK. But if I'm using Win 10, why would I want that? And if I go back to Win 8.1, presumably via an Image recovery, then I would get it back when I did that Recovery.
So, what am I missing in what you said?
I still want it so when using 8.1 and having trouble, I have that to bail me out.
Hi,
Keep me updated on any developments...
I think I have figured out why my Win 10 upgrade on my laptop was failing...
A small program called CoreTemp Ver. 1.0 RC6... The older versions are not a problem it seems...
