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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..
OK, so the hidden volume would hold the indexing log.
And are you saying I should not kill that out, that one is necessary I gather because of the log? If so, that would be in position to be the first partition even if I killed out #1 and #2 , since it comes before the third now.
Are we trying to prevent #3 from going any closer to the beginning -- I don't understand why we are trying to fill space there? What is the conflict that might be created?
And if I kill a partition, how am I skipping it? I don't mean to be nit picking about the language, I just don't understand what skipping is or how it works or what difference it makes.
But #4 and #5 can go.
When I do kill them, is there any special order I need to do it, like do #5 before #4, or the reverse?
Hi,
I think adding the 1GB partition after the fact would be too late...
I don't actually know if the 128MB HIDDEN partition would cause a problem similar to skipping over a partition or not, but that is what you would be doing by creating a single partition...
Even that is not a accurate statement... You will never have a single partition the way things are now, and that is really the potential problem... You can't have a single partition because of the 128MB one... It is there, and that makes two... And you would need to skip over it to use the 1GB at the beginning of the drive...
The reason it would not be such a problem if it were at the beginning or end of the drive is that you would not need to skip over it, nothing more or less...
I would advise not using #1 and #2 at all... Just leave them like they are...
If Acronis still won't make another image, worry about them then...
The hidden 128MB partition is the section of the drive that stores the file location of virtually everything on the drive...
EDIT... I guess I should explain partitions a little better... They are just sections of a HDD... BUT... they are treated as INDIVIDUAL Hard Drives by programs and operating systems...
So putting part of a Acronis Image on one partition and putting the rest on another partition, is the equivalent of part of the image being on one HDD and the rest being on another HDD... In most cases it just doesn't work....
In addition... when Partition Wizard claims it added 17.6GB to #3 from #5, there is a considerable amount of trickery going on there... Acronis is not buying it, and a lot of other programs will not either...
A partition is normally one continuous section of HDD... Trying to make it into something else is asking for trouble...
That hidden partition, and I think it is about 128 MB, if I recall correctly, is between what I have numbered as #2 and #3. I forget which application I see that with, maybe Partition Wizard.
I think that hidden partition is not needed, unless there always is a hidden partition even when you think you have only one partition. What did you say that might be for?
It would be helpful to me to be able to understand if I had some vague idea of why we should leave an extra partition. I'm not sure why we need to use up that space rather than just add it to #3. No, 1 GB is not a big deal considering how much empty space will be on this drive otherwise once I get rid of the migrated files.
Is a first or last partition treated differently than the rest, or maybe need something extra, some finishing something? I would just say sure to it if we had not run into a problem with multiple partitions on this drive. I'm trying to remember what that issue was, maybe we could not format, but we could format the first partition. I suppose these migrated ones are fine because they were already formatted before they came over.
And, do you foresee any issue approaching it by having just the one, and testing it out. If no issues, OK, if an issue, try to solve it by then adding the 1 GB partition?
Just to mention, this is the first time I've ever dealt with partitions.
Hi,
I meant 1GB for the #1 and #2 partition... just to use up the space...
You could just leave it empty, or leave the current partitions alone and just don't use them... 1GB isn't really enough to be of much benefit for anything in the long run...
I don't remember the exact problem with the two partitions either... your memory is a lot better than mine... But since it seems to be recognizing all of them now, I might just leave well enough alone...
For one thing, we don't know where the hidden 128MB partition was, and that is the concern... If it were the first or last partition it wouldn't be a issue...
I think it had to do with a boot partition, and you are not going to be booting from #3...
