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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'm not finding much in the way of bootable Defragmenters...
The best I could find is Defraggler, which can be run from a flash drive, but you would need to boot into windows to use it... Just doesn't need installed...
You could check out this link... http://www.piriform.com/docs/defraggler/advanced-usage
Don't worry... all is not lost. Things may not work out 100% as you wished, but they will work out and get the job done...
Hi,
We both must have been writing at the same time...
If you want to open up space on your external drive, just delete #4 and #5...
Then expand #3 into the open space... Don't mess with the other partitions...
You don't need to delete #3 either... Just delete most of it's contents...
In reality you could delete about everything except your Acronis Image...
There is no need to copy it to the laptop and back again... just leave it alone...
After deleting the contents of #3 you might be able to use a bootable 3rd party Defrag program to clean it up... Don't Defrag the image though... it should be good enough...
You need a partition for the Acronis Image... might as well use the one it is already on...
Before you decide, consider the other options in the other reply...
I will see what I can find for a bootable 3rd party defragmenter...
Hi,
Sorry for the delay... I was watching the Daytona 500 this afternoon...
Whenever you do an upgrade to Win 8, 8.1, 10, or even a newer build of 10, Windows saves all the files from the old OS in a C:\Windows.old folder...
This is in case there are issues with the upgrade, and it can Roll Back to the previous build... OR if you don't like the new build, you can Roll Back yourself...
This is never the best way to go back to a older Windows, but sometimes it is the only option some people have available...
Normally when it is determined that everything is OK, it can be deleted with a Disk Cleanup of System Files...
It is not only the old windows that can be deleted... There is a lot of other stuff that accumulates during the upgrade... Unneeded driver files, logs, Temp files, etc...
My machines routinely tell me this is 20-22GB, but after uninstalling, it ends up being more like 5GB...
As far as the Used Space on your internal C:\ drive... Just right click on it in ThisPC and select Properties... It will say exactly... Then you can compare it to what you had before, and see what is going on with the Acronis Image...
It does seem strange that Acronis stops in the same place regardless of the compression... It may be that regardless of the compression, there simply isn't enough space for that last 15GB...
Something I just thought of that you might want to think about, and might make things a lot easier... Actually a couple of things...
They are also still on the internal drive... Unless it fails totally, you can keep using those... With Acronis, you can just recover the C:\ partition should you have a problem with Windows crashing, and maybe the #1 and #2 for possible boot reasons..
Should you lose your entire internal HDD, or decide to replace it, you can simply restore the Acronis Win 10 Image, and then the #4 and #5 from the Acronis Win 8.1 Image...
It probably won't help much to Optimize\Defragment the internal drive, at least as far as Acronis is concerned... Aconis compresses free space so completely that it would not make a significant difference in the size of your image...
Your machine might run better though... especially boot...
DO NOT run any 3rd party program like this on your internal C:\ drive...
DO NOT even INSTALL it on the computer... It will most likel;y cause your fast Startup to stop functioning...
Don't use anything on your internal C:\ except Windows 10's Optimization...
BTW... Your EDIT #2 may be explaining the problem with Acronis... Windows is claiming it needs 126GB to Image three partitions... That is about where Acronis Stops... Check your Used Space on C:\ and let me know...
I know Acronis images are smaller than the ones Windows makes, but not sure how much...
Another thing... You don't need any files on your Windows 10 C:\ to roll back to Win 8.1... You have an image that would give much better end results...
New message, looking ahead.
I guess the only thing I can do now is kill out all the migrated files. That will solve the problem, either by getting rid of the partition causing the problem if it is, or otherwise opening up a huge amount of space, a good 100 GB of space -- enough space to Migrate the Win 10 files at full size rather than compressed in an Image, but I guess I still would do the image -- although the quality of Acronis is now in serious doubt, no matter its reputation.
You had suggested eliminating all but the primary partitions and the 15 GB Recovery partitions. But I see I also would need to keep the 300 GB EFI partition, and the invisible one too, whatever that is. That means I could get rid of the other two, but combined they are only about 600-700 MB -- of no use. So, it seems it is kill it all. Gee, I will first have to take out the Win 8.1 image in the desktop folder, try to move it off the partition and to just the hard drive. I'm afraid that would require copying it -- would rather not copy it. I'm not sure that is possible. Well, I can kill out the other partitions as a partition, and manually kill out all on the primary partition except the Win 8.1 image. But then I still have all that space taken up by the partition! Oh oh.
Maybe before approaching it that way, I should ask you about any possibility to fix the partitions, if they are the issue. Is there some software designed to fix such things for Windows? A utility to repair partitions and the files on them? Mac has that, does Windows? On Mac, I would use either Alsoft DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro do do that, both are excellent.
If that fixed any problem with the partitions or files on them, then I should be able to proceed with Acronis -- if the partitions are the issue.
If the partitions are not the issue, the issue is Acrojis and it is not going to work without something drastic like killing out all the partitions, killing out the files on the main partition except the image there, and reducing that partition to about the size of the image on it or increasing its size to that of the entire hard drive, probably the best way. But then I will have that partition remaining, and that is thee suspect partitions, and I'm proposing doing another size change! Still, there would be plenty of space on the rest of the drive. I would not want to put a second image on a second partition, because of what we already learned about a second partition on this external IDE drive.
