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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..
Re Win 10 and privacy. Is there a list somewhere of ALL the privacy things we can turn off there? This is now what I want to find out all about before going up -- because the second I get it installed and start up from it, the first thing I want to do is to turn ALL of that off. (And I still will never trust that I have shut them out -- anyone putting such on a drive can't be trusted at all, not even 1% of trust. I'm sure MS can turn it on remotely anytime they way and take everything without you knowing --and hand it over to anyone they want or just use it evilly themselves. That privacy violation is worse than the worst hacking that has gone on. That is NOT benign software nor is it even intended to be. And that is why they are making such a big push to make everyone go up to Win10. I can't believe people aren't screaming about that - they don't understand.) I did take note of the few things you pointed to already.
Meanwhile, let me ask once again:
"You say you can IMAGE from external to internal via USB hard drive, and it boots. However, since some boot things changed for Win 8, are you saying you have done that for a Win 8-or-up IMAGE? If you have, then that's what I need to know..."
That is a different question than migrating.
Re migrating, you said you migrated to an external USB drive and then migrated that to an external drive connected via a SATA port. Like you say, that is equal to an internal drive. And you said it booted -- so we know the files were originally migrated via USB in bootable fashion, even though we can't boot via USB. OK.
Partition Wizard provides for reducing the partition size in order to fit the disk. Actually, I'm not sure if it simply reduces, it might increase as well. What was odd is that it reduced some partitions, but two, maybe three of the small partitions were increased in size - that's odd. But the main one, with a lot of extra space on it, was significantly reduced, so all six partitions do fit.
I am figuring when I use these backups, I will first use it via unimaging -- and then I will know the image works fine. If that fails, I have the migrated files to fall back on to try migrating over. And if the partition sizes are not what they ought to be, Partition Wizard provides for changing partition sizes on a drive.
Let me ask a question about unimaging: I will be doing it to completely replace what is on the drive. Do I need to first delete all partitions already on the drive, or will it simply overwrite everything on the drive? Perhaps when I do it I will be presented with a choice and it will be obvious.
I don't recall where I read about UEFI being needed for Win 8. It is possible I read it in the Help menu on my machine, and possibly that was influenced by Gateway and just simply did not explain all, was simply explaining what is needed for that machine without pointing that out. But seems to me I might have seen it in at least two places, in forums online maybe -- don't remember. But you seem to be saying you use Win 8 in Legacy, so that is kind of a final answer. :)
Re GPT drive, the conditions requiring it that you say -- I believe you. But I also read it was needed if you have more than four partitions. That's why I used it.
Hi,
I have not actually tried Migrating back to the original drive... Only from the original drive to the USB drive... I'm sure it would migrate back, but there is a problem...
You mentioned that it changed your partition sizes in a strange way when migrating to the IDE drive... There is no guarantee that if you migrated back from the IDE drive to the Internal drive that the partitions would be like before....
Plus, you now have the Acronis Image in the middle of it...
I have "Recovered" Acronis Images many times though... Three or four times just today playing around with stuff...
I just tried adding a Acronis Image to the migrated OS on my USB drive... There were no issues.... BUT... I did notice that when I selected the USB Drive, I saw the contents of the root of C:... I'm not sure where you are seeing a Desktop folder...
That is kind of irrelevant now though...
If you run into problems with your experimenting, I would just use the Acronis Image...
You could probably just delete everything on the IDE drive again, and make a new Acronis Image... It may make your drive of more use in the future...
BTW... I forgot if you were booting from a Acronis CD to make the image...
If not, that would be the best way. Especially trying to put the image back on the internal drive.
Just to be safe, you could put a Windows System Image on it as well...
BTW... there is no requirement for UEFI Bios to install Win 8 and higher. Any such requirement is dependent on the hardware setup that it is being installed on...
Win 8 and above require a GPT drive to install on a UEFI machine, and a MBR drive to install on a legacy machine...
Windows requires a GPT drive to boot to a HDD larger than 2TB, and you need UEFI to use the drive...
Some things are actually dependent on how the UEFI Bios is actually written... What works for one manufacturer and their version of UEFI may not work on another manufacturers machine...
With your machine you just use Legacy to boot from a CD or Flash... Other machines have three or more settings that need to be changed to do the same thing.
About Win 10... When you get Windows 10 on the machine, there are a bunch of privacy related things you can turn off for more Privacy...
One is "Connected User Experience" in SERVICES...
There are a bunch more in All Setttings... Privacy...
I turned off everything in there, as well as all live tiles...
When I Customize my settings during the installation, I uncheck or turn off everything there as well..
You have to look VERY Closely to see the option to "Customize Settings"... It is in VERY small text on the lower left of the screen after you select the user.
Acronis issue solved! And you guessed the problem right. Yes, I was unknowingly trying to image the drive to the same drive.
That image is now being made as I write to the desktop in the migrated files on the external drive.
The Acronis page to select the partitions (and so the drive) that you want to image simply names the two drives Disk 1 and Disk 2. I correctly identified which is the internal drive, from the size of the partitions, since the migrated partitions on the external drive are a different size. But when you hit Next to then select the destination location, it changes how it identifies the disks, identifying the drives as C drive and D drive, with C the first listed, as was Disk 1 on the -page to select what partitions to image.
Well, they flipped them! It took me several looks, but I finally noticed a (D) at the end of the string of a name on the Disk 1 drive on the selection page. That's it!
I knew Disk 1 was the C drive on the internal disk, and you always list C drive before D drive. Well, they listed them backward, D drive first, C drive second, but named them Disk 1 and Disk 2 to hide that. This is not helpful! And the destination page had the named C drive as the first listed, and since it didn't have sizes there, that was all I had to go on. I didn't realize Acronis was naming my C drive the D drive. And it lists the D drive before it lists the C drive, backward!
OK, so I am now making that image. That problem is solved.
The problem on booting and testing and whatever -- we have pretty much established that I'm not going to be able to boot the migrated files from the external drive, but they should boot if migrated back to the internal drive, you have tested that and with Win 8.1. And, the Image should unimage to the internal drive and work fine. They should work, I just can't test them, but you know that process works as you have done it.
Well, the only confirmation I could use from you is:
"You say you can image from external to internal via USB hard drive. and it boots. However, since some boot things changed for Win 8, are you saying have you done that for a Win 8 or up image? If you have, then that's what I need to know..."
That should clear me as much as I'm going to be cleared to next proceed with going up to Windows 10. I expect once settled in on that, I will go back to Win 8.1 -- I really don't like that spying stuff on Win 10, taking EVERYTHING from your computer and sending it to MS. No wonder they are so strongly pushing people to go up for free, they are planning to collect more info on people than anyone else on the planet! I now read they are preparing to stop support for even Win 8 and 8.1 -- this to try to force people up to Win 10. Win 10 is as evil as it gets, and they're making it so you will have no choice.
Thank you for all your effort -- you put in a lot of effort, you're amazing.
Thank you.
Re Acronis: Now that you realize I have the migrated files on the external, and trying to put the image on that desktop: Do you have any input about why Acronis is insisting I am trying to image to the same drive the Image is being made from? I have specifically set up/checked the imaging in Acronis to image from C drive to D drive? Are you able to image from one drive to a second drive that already has the migrated files from the first drive?
This Acronis issue is now the bigger issue. The booting and external drive -- I can't test that, but you have done enough that I can have some confidence (at least if you have tested with Win 8 or up) in what's what and that I will be able to get bootable files back out of the image to the internal drive.
Are you saying you booted Win 8.1 in Legacy mode? Microsoft specifically says Win 8 and up must use UEFI mode in order to boot. I just tested on my machine, and neither the internal nor external drive will boot in Legacy mode with Win 8.1. The internal boots fine in UEFI mode.
I suppose I can erase the external, change to MBR (can I change to MBR without erasing?), re-migrate things over and test in Legacy mode. But I would be surprised if Win 8 will boot in Legacy if I simply change the disk to MBR -- as I said, I even just tested booting in Legacy. I'll try to do that today, and will let you know.
Since you used MBR, then I guess you did not have or otherwise migrate the six partitions I have. Hmm, come to think of it, I can't even migrate all six if the disk is MBR, right? This means even if that test in the preceding paragraph works, it would have to be with only some of my partitions, not all -- so it would be simply academic for my situation. But if it boots, maybe it gives us something to think on - I don't think it will boot, especially since your USB hard drives do not boot in MBR. In fact I think your tests make my proposed test a waste of time, come to think of it , it won't boot anyway so we learn nothing-- do you agree? No point in wasting time.
So even your Win 8.1 did not boot from external. That doesn't surprise me if you were in Legacy mode, since MS says Win 8 and up won't boot in Legacy, and my test above seems to confirm that.
From our previous discussion, I think MBR is fine for Win 8, I'm at GPT because I have six partitions. I don't know what all those partitions are for, but I'm pretty sure they were there when originally sold, not added later, so they must be for something needed, even if machine-specific.
You say you can image from external to internal via USB hard drive. and it boots. However, since some boot things changed for Win 8, are you saying have you done that for a Win 8 or up image? If you have, then that's what I need to know, that tells me I should be able to have a bootable drive from an 8.1 image on my external. That adds confidence, although not at the level of me being able to test on this side, but pretty good confidence. If you haven't done it for Win 8 or up, the question remains. I understand that you already have tested via the migration, but an image could test out differently. I understand that you have done it with images, just not clear if you have done it is an Win 8 or up image.
Thought: I'm suspecting the USB issue is that a flash drive boots because it is a native USB device. The hard drives are not native USB, they must be converted to USB. There must be something in the conversion that blocks the booting or otherwise leaves the info transmitted insufficient.
