Can't Boot From Bootable CD -- Bios Set Correctly

Anonymous
2015-11-02T05:57:29+00:00

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?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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.

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Anonymous
2016-08-24T15:35:47+00:00

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..

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-01-31T09:45:04+00:00

    Messages out of order again.

    Edit: I just found how to access the Windows burning tool -- I didn't even know I had one! I am to right click on the file, select "Burn Disc Image," and that opens Windows Disc Image Burner.

    I see no such burn option when I right click on a folder or a file, so I guess only an ISO burner is included.

    Secondly, and important: Now I want to make that data burn. However, in trying to move the ISO file into a folder with the other Win 10 stuff, I get a message from Windows saying I can't move it in there, because it is open in System! What? What is that? How do I close it? Because of that, I'm afraid to shut down the computer, it might disappear before I can make a data burn, or interfere with a data burn. HELP on this issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-31T09:31:55+00:00

    Hi,

    Those downloads can speed up and slow down quite a bit over the course of the process... One minute it can say 2hrs... then 6hrs. like you mention, but then just as quickly drop back down to 2hrs...

    People that live in apartment buildings in which the internet or WiFi is provided by the management can have a lot of problems like that... Everything works fine until your neighbor starts downloading something too...

    Overloaded servers cause this frequently, as well as your ISP's Hub (router) that you have to go through... My internet connection was the result of a problem 100 miles away...

    On another occasion the problem was with a local hub...

    Normally Hotmail works well for me.. I don't use any mobile devices to access email, so that's not a issue.... I don't particularly like the idea of using Google either...

    They are probably as bad, if not worse than Microsoft for collecting data...

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-01-31T09:30:58+00:00

    Hello,

    ISO created on the desktop. Just burned to disk with Nero. Verified fine.

    Question:

    When that media creator tool finished creating the ISO, it gave a window called Windows Disc Image Burner Image.

    Then it had:

    Usage:

    ISOBURN.EXE

    [/Q] [<drive letter>:] ,disc image file name>

    /Q: starts burning in the Burn Disc Image window.

    OK, so what is all that referring to? Does Windows 8.1 have a burning application buried in it somewhere that's I'm supposed to know about?

    I searched for ISOBURN.EXE. I found several hits, but generally they would not even open, said they won't work on this OS, or they opened to a window that was just a dead window, not an application to fill in that string or anything.

    Am I supposed to run that string in maybe Command Prompt? Would be nice if MS didn't give such useless instructions in that window and at that point! It makes it sound like maybe I need to use that, that maybe it does something special in the burn -- but where is it?

    Just wondering. If that ins in the OS and for burning ISOs, I want to know about it. And if so, is there any other burning application in Win 8.1 (and 10)?

    I'll test the DVD in the morning to see if it boots - it seemed to say it would. But regardless,I need to run it from the desktop, as explained earlier because of the need for UEFI when it reboots during the install.

    BTW, I now want a copy of the ISO I can simply drag off a disk to the desktop -- for future reference. What I see on this bootable disk is the contents of the ISO, but not the actual ISO image. Would I do merely a data burn to disk for a non-bootable ISO that I can see and drag off to the desktop? Will that ISO include everything it need, or will something invisible be lost? That's really the disk I need.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-01-31T03:47:36+00:00

    In this particular  case, I can actually  identify what day the problem  started  -- yesterday. So, I  presume it coincidentally started  at 79% of the download,  because it was downloading fine until then. And it was disguised by the rest of internetting on the Mac going fine, I just didn't happen to download anything here, which is where the problem shows the most.

    The ISO download now shows it is going to take 6 more  hours -- the  longer it download, the longer it  is going to  take, apparently. Overnight. Downloads  of everything always seem to start fast and then slow down.

    RE your Hotmail  issue, I have found often that Hotmail is slow on its side -- those issues you describe might very well not  be your ISP, but are MS. In fact, because Hotmail is generally slow  anyway, I use Gmail as my interface for my Hotmail account -- you can set it up to bring over all the e-mail from the Inbox (but not from folders) to a Gmail account, like an e-mailer application. Gmail runs a lot faster than Hotmail. And in fact, I even set Gmail to run in HTML rather than newer version, because the HTML version is really fast. Hotmail doesn't  have an HTML version, only the mobile version, which  is horrible to deal with.

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