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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..
OK no .ini file in the migrated OS because there isn't supposed to be. And in that case, Partition Wizard apparently isn't able to work on Win Vista and up for that tool. Good, succinct answer, thanks. Still, I would hope when it migrated files, it put them all there and in the same place, so I would hope it would boot. The Partition Wizard tool is specifically looking to fix .ini, so it is not looking for BCD.
Re the drive letters, I double checked in Acronis by looking at the size of the partitions -- the migrated files are on different size partitions than the original OS. D is the migrated files. And regardless, I tried to Image one drive to the other -- the problem is that for proceeding with the imaging, Acronis is seeing the two different hard drives as one and the same, according to the message it gives! That's insane. Is there perhaps something in the files to identify the OS, and so the migrated files have the same identity so look like the same drive to Acronis -- as you say, confusing Acronis? But it knows they are different hard drives, it knows it is putting an image of one drive on another drive. Its not complaining that identical files are already there, its complaining it is the same drive.
Boot Manager sees both hard drive. Does it see only bootable drives? If so,then both must be bootable. We did suggest in the previous discussion that I might not be able to boot from USB -- but, I am doubtful of that, as Windows 8.1 and MS both say I can make a USB flash drive restore disk and boot from it, and that's booting from USB. In fact, I made that USB flash drive restore disk, and I must have tested it by booting, I would do that automatically or keep it as a project for further work.
We also suggested IDE might create a problem. But I worry that if it is a problem for ht emigrated files, it might prove to be the same problem for an Image. And I can't test the image, we learned, so all this might be a waste of time and I might lose Win 8.1 in the end -- although I do have the disk now that I could start from a bank disk and rebuild it all again, a huge job.
What you say about the location to which I'm saving the image being part of the image -- that's what the Acronis message says. But its not what I'm doing. I'm imaging the one drive to the other drive. Even on the destination drive, I have specifically unchecked the boxes in Acronis for the partitions on the D drive so it would not include those. It had defaulted to putting a check for two of the six partitions to be included in the image -- but I unchecked those two, nothing is checked to image from the D drive. All partitions on the destination drive have been unchecked. You are right in what you say, but since it is not what I'm doing, this is why is it so perplexing. :)
Acronis is recognizing the drive -- it is showing it.
Yes, I have enough space on the internal drive to image the entire drive even. Basically, that's what I'm doing to the external drive -- putting the image of the internal on the desktop of the external -- which is a smaller drive, but still has plenty of room for the image, and a second for Win 10 when I get there. I can test that, but then when I get the message, it would be correct. The message is incorrect as have been trying to do it. I can test that in the morning -- but I'm sure I will get the message.
An image won't boot, will it -- didn't I already ask about that previously,and it won't? It can only be, what's the word, unimaged and those files could then boot. At any rate, we learned already that I can't boot from it on the external, and I was not able to unimage it to a second partition on the external -- Acronis would not deal with any subsequent partitions, only the first one. That's why I have now changed the external drive to a single partition, so I can put the image on it and then try to unimage it to the same partition so as to test it (hmm, in that case, maybe I don't want the migrated files on there yet anyway).
We l already spoke about booting Win 8 and up in MBR (see, I've been listening to you). Win 8 and up require UEFI mode in order to boot. And Partition Wizard and Acronis need Legacy in order to boot. Maybe that's why we were talking that I might not be able to boot via USB, but I can boot the flash drive via USB. I can't even boot the internal drive if I'm in Legacy mode. The difference is the OS files, not SATA or IDE or USB.
Now to go read your second message.
Hi,
I just used Partition Wizard 9.1 to Migrate my Windows OS to a external drive, and it worked perfectly...
The only difference between what I did, and you, is that I connected the external drive by eSata... Not USB... Which is the same as making it a internal drive.
The drive booted properly the first time with the eSata connection, but will not boot when hooked up with USB.... The windows screen appears briefly, and then the machine restarts... Just keeps doing the same thing over and over..
My conclusion is that you will never boot your machine with a USB External Hard Drive...
And even if you could, it would be so slow it would be useless...
Your IDE drive is as far as I'm concerned, too obsolete to do some of the things you want to do...
I'm sure it would be able to be used to save a Windows System Image and\or a Acronis Image, or backup your data, but that's about all...
Hi,
I have been wondering how things have been going...
You will have to forgive me if my memory isn't real clear about some of the things that have been tried... I will need to do some re-reading...
First off... don't worry about the .ini file... Windows XP was the last OS to use that...
The newer versions use a file called BCD...
If the Partition Wizard is not detecting this properly, that may be why the drive won't boot... It may not be migrating the OS properly... Does it appear as a Boot Option ?
When it comes to selecting a drive with the bootable version of Acronis, you can't go by the drive letters that normally appear in windows... Acronis has it's own way of naming them...
I normally go by the drive's NAME... For instance, My C;\ drive has been split into several partitions... One of them I use for DATA, which includes Acronis images...
When I created the partition I named it "BACKUP"... I have another internal drive I named "DOCUMENTS"... All of my External drives also have a name that I can identify them with instead of a letter.
When I boot with Acronis I go by the name, not the drive letter...
You could do this with your IDE drive....
The only reason I can think that Acronis would not do the image is that the "Location" you choose to save the Image is part of what you are Imaging...
Acronis may have assigned drive letters to partitions that did not have drive letters in Windows... It is also possible that it is not now recognizing your External drive for some reason...
It is also possible that Acronis is detecting the Migrated OS on the IDE drive and confusing it... That's kind of for me to determine without being able to see it...
Do you by chance have enough free space on one of your internal partitions to save a Acronis Image ? Just as a temporary test... A spare drive would be better, but The last I knew you didn't have one.
You don't need to Image the entire drive for the test... Just Windows and a EFI partition...
What we really need to do is to determine if a Acronis Image will boot on the IDE drive... So if you have room to save an image, you then can Recover it to the IDE drive and see what happens...
If I get a chance, I will try out Partition Wizard's Migration feature and see what happens...
EDIT... You may need to make the IDE drive a MBR drive and try booting into it in LEGACY...
I'm back. And slance310, if you get this, I have a few questions again.
Where I'm at. I have been doing a few things.
I booted from the Partition Wizard disk, and deleted all partitions on my external IDE drive (been there since we last spoke -- just now able to get back to this). I made it one partition and put the NTFS format on it.
I found a tool in Partition Wizard that will migrate the OS and do it as bootable. So I thought I could migrate it over, and it would be bootable. I migrated, and it edits it down to fit. A bit odd, it makes some partitions bigger than original and some smaller.
But it won't boot. It should boot in UEFI mode, but just in case, I also tried it in Legacy mode -- both ways fail.
I used the tool in Partition Wizard to fix a disk so it will boot, but it says there is no .ini file, can't be fixed.
I have to figure that for some reason, that was not migrated over. I tried thee migration at least twice, same each time.
I am figuring the .ini file is needed for boot. It was supposed to be migrated over and boot. Do you know if I might be able to bring that isolated file(s) over manually -- where is it, can I simply copy it to same place on the external?
Now, as I have explained before, Win 8.1 (win 8 too, and win 10) must boot in EUEEFI mode. However, the Partition Wizard disk must boot in Legacy mode. Could that be causing of this problem, that Partition Wizard can't migrate files meant for UEFI because it is booted in Legacy?
I'm afraid you are going to blame it on the external being IDE, and internal is SATA. Or, that the machine simply won't boot from any external USB (we have suggested that, I'm still not convinced). But regardless of those issues, Partition Wizard said there is no .ini file, and that certainly is the first problem -- and I'm afraid I also might not get that .ini in the Image and so be screwed. And as we discussed, I can't test the image.
I was thinking to have the migrated files on the external and be able to boot. I could then make the image file to the desktop on the external, and do the same with the Win 10 image file when I get to that point. (And so I would have both OSs and could go back and forth as desired -- if the Images work.) Then, if the Image file did not work for some reason, I would still have the migrated disk to migrate back. But the migrated disk doesn't work! Damn. And Acronis is creating a new problem.
I left all those migrated files on the drive. I figured if the booting could be fixed, I could fix it later.
Next, to Acronis (64 bit) to make a disk image, and put it on the desktop of the migrated OS (and all other) files now on the external drive.
In Acronis, it sees the C drive and the D drive, the D should be the external drive.
I marked in Acronis to image the C drive and all the partitions on it, and nothing of the D drive. I then marked and navigated on it to image them to the D drive, to the desktop folder there.
But then when I hit Next, it gives me a message that it can't make the image to the same drive it is imaging. But thus makes no sense, because I marked to image the C drive to the D drive. I tired it several time, same every time.
So, you can see the problems.
Why is it saying that about imaging the C drive to the D drive? How can I get around that?
I am able to image from the C drive to the D drive -- when there is nothing on it. I did that last time we spoke. The issue last time was trying to deal with a second partition on the external drive. That's when I have now made it one partition -- the first partition always worked previously.
Also, another quesiton: Being as that migration was supposed to create a bootable OS on the external, do you have any idea why it did not, and also whether I might run into the same issue with the Image file! Gee, if the Image does not produce a bootable OS, I'm dead, this entire exercise would be a waste of time. And as we discussed previously, I can't test the Image file.
I tried using the OS install disk you had me download and burn to see if I could fix the booting on the D drive, but it would not address anything but the internal drive -- that surprised me. That disk won't address an external drive!
I have no other repair program to fix the booting on the external drive migrated OS. My only thought is to manually bring over the .ini file.
