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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..
Well, for better or worse, I have now moved the space over from #5 to #3. It was easy with Partition Wizard, it let me do it in a single step direct from #5 to #3.
Partition Wizard allowed me to take space from either #4 or #5 to move to #3. It did not allow me to take the space from any other, not even #2. But I did not have to do it in two steps, to #4 first, could go direct #5 to #3. It took 20 minutes or a half hour.
I am now booted from Acronis and doing the Image, after one false start because I made a mistake so canceled. And in going through all the settings, I found Compression setting buried a few clicks down and in a list. It is set for Normal by default -- I could make the file smaller by using more compression. I don't know why NOT to do that, but I left it at Normal.
And that page tells me how big the final Image will be at that particular setting! At Normal, it will be 83.75 GB, just slightly more than the 82.xx of the Win 8.1 image, and so leaving me about 15 GB more free space than I need to do the Win 10 Image. At the highest compression, it could go as low as the low 70s GB, so leave me with about 35 GB of free space if I did both images at that, rather than the about 15 GB I now will have left.
For future reference, is there any reason not to do the highest compression? It might take longer, but if no other issue, that might be desired so as to leave me with enough free space for something else that might arise, or to simply make something fit that otherwise could not. In fact, I could have left the partitions as-is today and simply done the Image at a higher compression! But as long as nothing in ruined on Partition 5, I would rather have the free space altogether on one partition.
Oh, I note, the OS Disk Management shows only five partitions on the external drive, as I have numbered above. But Partition Wizard shows six! It has another partition in between what I numbered as #2 and #3. That partition is only 128MB in size, and the same size on both internal and external drives.
I find it very disconcerting that the OS software does not show that partition.
And so yes, I do have six partitions as I was saying all along, not five as shown by the OS Disk Management.
Will confirm later that I have the final Image fine and dandy. Thank you for your help -- again.
Hi,
There is a good chance the 16GB\33GB #5 is useless regardless what you do...
That is to "Restore To Factory" which is Win 8... That process is usually damaged and made useless by the upgrade to Win 8.1...
It is possible that Gateway has something built into the BIOS that will launch the process if the partition is intact... But I don't know enough about gateway to say...
I THINK the 450MB #4 is where Windows gets it's "Recovery Tools" for stuff like Refresh, Reset, Startup Repair, Command Prompt, and etc... The machine basically reboots into that partition when you select it under the "Recovery" section of your settings...
It contains the same files as a Repair Disk would, and is where the files for the Repair Disk would probably come from... You may have more than one of those due to the various upgrades... You really only need four partitions for that machine to function as a UEFI machine... maybe only three... Sometimes the EFI and Recovery and combined in to a single "System Reserved" partition...
The problem is that only the one created or used by the current OS is of any use...
A problem with resizing #4 and #5 is that the files on them are not just any old file...
They are or at least contain an image... When you resize the front of the partition, what is stored there needs to be moved... If the image is broken so that it is not a single continuous file, it may not work...
Partition Wizard may not allow you to do what you want for that reason, or there may not be enough space on #5 to move it properly..
Another though may be to simply delete #4 and #5 and expand #3 to the size you need... Then see if partition Wizard will allow you to Migrate just #4 and #5 to the remainder of the open space...
If you lose the 16\33 GB Image, it may be no great loss... Should it be necessary, I would think you would have better luck with a Acronis Image, but maybe not...
You wouldn't need to move your Acronis image of Win 8.1 back to the laptop, then back to the external again to get rid of most of the Migrated files... Just delete them...
Not the entire partition... just the files except the Acronis... Delete #4 and #5 and expand #3... You could even delete #1 and #2 and expand #3 the other direction also.. If you don't need it for Migration anymore, it doesn't matter if it won't boot...
You would end up with about exactly the same thing as if you reformatted the entire drive and started over... I don't know if Partition Wizard will allow you to delete individual files, but you could plug it in to the laptop while it is running Win 10 and delete them...
Let me know if I missed something...
So, moving the space form 5 to 4 and then from 4 to 3 might work. But whether it changes anything on 5 and 4 to prevent their use later -- who knows, maybe, maybe not.
Let me ask: Do you know any way I can check partition 5 to see how much space on it is empty? I cannot get into Properties for any partition other than #3, so I can't see how much empty space is on any but #3. I am presuming, from the sizer of the original on the internal drive. Would be nice to confirm that it does have only 15.9 GB on it (or less, as that 15.9 GB original might even have space on it).
#5 is the main Recovery Partition. Have never understood what 4 or the other are, we have only suggested something from Gateway. Perhaps 2 is something to do wit booting.
Do you agree that whatever the space move might do, nothing shod be done tot he Win 8.1 Image on 3, that is intact within itself, so as long as I can access that, it still should be fine afterward?
Other than that, the migrated files have simply been an extra. The unfortunate thing, as you know, is that I can't test any of the the backups or recovery, and so that makes the migrated files more significant, as additional backup. Of course, at this point, I might be better off getting rid of them and migrating over the Win 10 disk instead. But then I definitely would have to mess with copying over that Win 8.1 image to the internal desktop first -- and safest for that is not to do anything with it so nothing can get corrupted.
So, I think I probably will proceed with trying to move the space from partition to partition . Worst case scenario in that case is that I would have both Win 8.1 and 10 images, and almost certainly a good bootable Win 8.1 migrated files, but the migrated Recovery partition might not work right -- and we don't even know what #4 is for. I might have the option to install a new #5 from the Win 8.1 install disk I have, if needed? Come to think of it, fat the moment, I have that partitions on the Recovery flash drive I made! But my plan is to change that out for the Win 10 open, making a Win 10 Recovery flash drive.
At this point, I am doubtful I will go back to Win 8.1 anyway. Just want to preserve options for now. So maybe the risk of losing #5 functionality but only for ht emigrated files, not the Image, is a risk worth taking. Its just unfortunate that I would not be able to even know if anything happened until some day down the line if I needed the partitions for a recovery.
Its really a shame at Partition Wizard did not simply reduce, as it said. If it did not add to some of the partitions, this would never be a question and yesterday's Imaging would have worked.
And if you can follow all this post, then you know you've had way too much coffee this morning and you're a geek. :)
Hi,
The reason that resizing\deleting #2 and expanding #3 into it may cause a problem is because it changes the address of some of the boot files on #3... For lack of a better description, it alters the distance from the beginning of the partition to the boot files..
There is a chance you could shrink #5 and expand #4 into the open space, then shrink #4 and expand #3 into the open space...
There is a chance the partitions #4 and #5 may be useless as a result, should you ever need them restored...
There is a chance that they are useless now... Some types of files don't take kindly to being moved around in that fashion...
Partition Wizard should be able to do that, but I have never tried using it for that specific purpose... I normally use Acronis for that, and only to remove 450MB Recovery partitions and expand C:...
It's been a good number of years since I've had the need to do what you want to try...
I have found ways to make it not necessary to start with !!!
