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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..
Thanks. I am thinking an MS server was the problem. This forum is now running fast -- early this afternoon after I started the download on the other computer this page took literally a half hour to load!
Is Software Distribution where Windows Update was downloading it? I was wondering about that -- I figure about 2 GB of download must be somewhere. I also was hoping that if I got Windows Update to work again -- and maybe if the MS server was the problem, Update is now working (I'm on my Mac now) -- it might start at the 82% point, so be not a lot.
The first 79% downloaded in no more than an hour, the next 3% took several hours, and then just quit.
But I can download it and burn an ISO for future reference? Good. But that other talk you give -- there goes another six months: A Virtual Clone Drive -- whatever that is, and why I would need it is beyond me. Surely it downloads it as an ISO already. A tool to create the media? I just burn the ISO to disk, right? I'm sure that will be wrong because that would be too smart a way, surely I have to fight that for six more months.
Via Windows Update, it offers two ways to do it: download and install, or simply download and schedule to install later. I don't know why it uses the word "schedule." But I figure the ISO must be downloaded that way and put somewhere -- that might be a better ISO if it includes the drivers you mention.
MAYBE I will try the download tomorrow -- if I'm not too irritated. If it runs fast and gets it fine, if it crawls along and jerks me around again, forget it. Of course, no matter what, I still have to fix Windows Update, so I don't even have time for Win 10.
I'm also fixing a friend's Win 7 -- and that is done, except Windows Update won't work, just searches for updates interminably! But that hasn't worked there for two days now, not simply this afternoon.
Hi,
You might have better luck if you download the installation media first, and then run it from within windows, instead of using Windows Update...
It actually can take a very long time through Windows Update... It needs to download Win 10, and then any drivers and stuff the machine may need...
If you download the ISO, burn a DVD, or create a Flash Drive, you only need to do it once... You will still need to wait for possible driver downloads during or after the installation though...
I personally just download the ISO and run it... You need a Virtual Drive of some type to do that though... I use Virtual Clone Drive by SlySoft... it's free.
Here's the link to the Create Media Webpage...
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
You will need to run a tool to actually download the ISO and\or create the media.
BTW... If you try again, it would be a good idea to do a Disk Cleanup of System Files, and delete the contents of the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder first...
Just FYI, I give up. To **** with Win10 -- I don't want it anyway, as I've said all along.
It won't download. It sat at 79% for hours, I finally stopped it, started, same. Again, same, stopped it, restarted the computer, same. After three more hours it made it from 79% to 82% and it would not go beyond that no matter what, Eventually it just quit and said it failed.
And at this point, Windows Updater doesn't even want to work. Every time I try it, it gives a different error code, so who even knows which to track down. I ran Windows UPdate Repair. I ran -- and ran, and ran, and ran endlessly, never finished looking!
I give up. Windows is a piece of ****. They do all they can to force you to upgrade, and then they won't even let you do it, just use it as an excuse to waste tons more of you time and patience!
My internetting is working fine otherwise -- except for that and for this MS forum (although the forum at this instant is working).
So, 8 months so far on what never should have taken more than a day for the back up and OS upgrade. And it looks like 8 more months. No, I will not do it. Better to just cut my loses. Yes, you could argue not to, I'm so close -- I told myself last August continue, I'm so close! Its just about February!
Don't bother responding, I've wasted too much of your time already, and I'm just venting -- I can chase this down, but I refuse to spend 8 more months chasing this **** down.
Microsoft is a piece of ****. Besides, they should NEVER had made a 2.5 GB download! Who the **** can get a download that big a file. They should have broken it in parts, nothing more than maybe 500 MB or 700 MB. There is no reason they could not have done it like that -- it doesn't have to be one file, since they were not putting on a disk anyway.
I'm downloading Windows 10 as I write from another computer. Download was going fine --now is at 79% -- and seems to just be stuck there. But my internetting is working, as you can see from me posting this. Been stuck at that for 20 minutes or a half hour now -- I'm worrying. The issue might actually be MS servers -- as even this web page is hardly functioning for me, but the rest of my Internetting is fine.
Anyway, if you know any privacy things to address other than what is in those two articles, please let me know. There is a ton in the first one, pretty much all the things you mentions.
Not sure what you are referring to about telemetry, but the stuff in the second article might very well be that. They didn't say how to stop it. I know about outgoing firewalls, like Little Snitch, but as you once said, it can be irritating, would rather not get into that. However, if you use something like that, they did give a couple URLs in that second article you might want to block.
