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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,
I just tried Partition Wizard Migration again... this time using a USB connection and Win 8.1... It turned out pretty much the same way...
One thing that is different about my machine is that in addition to using Legacy Mode, my drives are all MBR.. That may make a difference...
My outcome is a bit different than your's in the sense that Windows actually tries to boot from the USB HDD... even Win 8.1...
The process actually looks like it is going to work, but then crashes... It may simply be that the USB connection is too slow to boot with a Hard Drive...
Another thing... I forgot you had done a migration to the IDE drive... I was thinking you were trying to save a Acronis Image to a blank partition for some reason...
Hi,
I didn't mean that you couldn't boot from USB at all... Just USB Hard Drive...
The process works differently with Hard Drives than with Flash Drives and DVDs..
I don't need to test to see if I can Recover a Acronis Image to the Internal Hard Drive from a USB Hard Drive... I already know for a fact that it works.... I have dozens of Acronis Images saved to USB Hard Drives that I reload and boot with all the time...
So that's an easy question to answer...
When you say that you try to save a Acronis Image to a "Desktop" folder on the D:\ drive, it kind of confuses me... A Blank Partition shouldn't have a folder at all, unless you specifically created one...
The machine I'm doing this on is UEFI Bios capable, but I don't use it... I run everything in Legacy Bios.. Because of the way I use my machine, the UEFI places too many restrictions on what I want to do..
I did the Partition Wizard test with Win 7 Ultimate... just because that is what was on my machine at the time...
I think that regardless of what type of booting you try with your IDE drive, it will not work... The Images and Migrations you are doing are coming from a GPT Disk, and being put on a HDD that probably is not capable of understanding the GPT properly...
GPT did not exist when that drive was designed and manufactured..
Out of curiosity, I will make another migrated drive with Win 8 and see if the outcome is the same... It may be later today though..
Because I am even able to try this should be proof enough that it can be done with Acronis... That is what I use to select which Image I put in my computer to test with...
BTW, I'm surprised you have a SATA port to plug into.
OK, so I might not be able to test booting because it is via USB. And unless and until we figure it out, Acronis is blocking me from imaging to the external, at least while the migrated files are on it.
What level OS did you test with? Was it one that requires UEEFI mode to boot, Win 8 or higher? Which boot mode were your bios set for?
I note again, I can boot in USB, from the flash drive. I just can't do it -- so far -- from the external hard drive, and now you can't with an external hard drive either. We previously were figuring that must be because I am using IDE -- but I think you are using SATA, so IDE is not the issue after all.
So, gee, I hate to ask you to do a significant test, but since you can't boot from usb, can you test to see if you can unimage from external, via USB, to an internal, and it boots? Maybe you can just do that to the external SATA drive from an external USB drive.
That's a lot to ask -- please, don't do it if too much, I would not even ask, except you have done some other similar tests already, and you at least must have enough of a setup to do things a bit easier than for someone with a lesser setup. But this is still time consuming.
That way if your's boots after unimaging via USB, at least I can hope mine will. And if it won't boot, than I know I need to think of something new. We know the migrated files will boot via SATA, not USB; but will the unimaged files.
And then our only issue would be imaging via Acronis to the external with the migrated files on it.
"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... ": Well, that's all I'm trying to do -- the booting is to test it before I lose the OS, in the upgrade to Win 10, but depend on the image to reinstall it.
So, you suspect I would still be able to unimage the image to the internal drive, and it should then work fine?
You got different on your USB test boot. I don't get as far as you do, it goes to my Gateway screen (not Windows), tries to pickup the OS on the external, gets nothing, and sends me to a window to click if I want to try some repairs. The repairs send me to the standard page in setting for repairs, none of which would be to simply repair the OS, but to refresh or restore etc. I can't restore it -- it has no restore point in the past, it is brand new! I don't know, maybe it carried over a restore point form the internal drive, but I'm sure we would be asking for trouble with the computer restoring the internal rather than the external, and I sure l don't want that mess. So, I went to Partition Wizard and that .ini too -- but now I learn .ini isn't supposed to be in Win 8.1.
