FVE_E_BOOTABLE_CDDVD (0X80310030) – Bootable Disc Fix

Quick answer

Eject the CD/DVD from the drive, restart your PC. If the error persists, hold Shift while restarting, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings, and set the boot order to not include the optical drive.

What's causing this error?

This error pops up right after you turn on your PC—usually on a Windows 10 or 11 machine with BitLocker encryption turned on. The system detects a bootable CD or DVD in the optical drive and thinks it's supposed to boot from it. That's a problem because BitLocker expects to boot from your main hard drive. I've seen this happen most often when someone leaves an old Windows installation disc, a driver disc, or even a game disc in the drive after a reboot. The drive doesn't have to be spinning—just sitting there with a bootable disc is enough to trigger error 0x80310030.

The error text itself is pretty direct: FVE_E_BOOTABLE_CDDVD. Behind the scenes, BitLocker’s pre-boot environment checks the boot order and sees the disc as a valid boot device. It gets confused and throws up this code instead of letting you log in. You can't bypass it by pressing keys—you have to physically or logically remove that disc from the equation.

Fix steps – in order

1. Eject the disc. Press the eject button on your optical drive (or open it via the little pinhole if it's a slot-load drive). If you can't do that from the locked screen, hold down the power button for 10 seconds to force a shutdown, then try again. Once the disc is out, restart normally. After the reboot, you should see the BitLocker password prompt or your login screen—no more error.
2. If step 1 doesn't work, change the boot order in BIOS/UEFI. Restart your PC. As soon as the manufacturer logo appears (like Dell, HP, Lenovo), start pressing F2 repeatedly (or Del, Esc, F10—it varies). Inside the BIOS setup, look for a tab called Boot, Boot Order, or Boot Priority. Find any entry that says CD/DVD, Optical Drive, or similar. Move it to the bottom of the list, or disable it entirely. Save and exit (usually F10). After that, the machine will boot straight to the hard drive, and BitLocker won't see the disc.
3. If you can't get into BIOS, use Windows Recovery Environment. Hold Shift while you click Restart from the login screen (if you can get that far). Or if you're stuck at the error screen, force a shutdown twice in a row—Windows will detect the failed boot and give you the recovery menu. From there, choose Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings. That takes you into the BIOS without needing to mash F2. Then follow step 2 to change the boot order.
4. Still stuck? Use a recovery USB to disable the disc check. You'll need another PC to create a Windows installation USB (8GB or larger). Boot from that USB on your locked PC. On the setup screen, click Repair your computer. Navigate to Troubleshoot > Command Prompt. Type bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy and press Enter. That changes the boot menu to a classic text-based one, which sometimes skips the CD/DVD check. Restart—should get past the error.

Alternative fixes if the main ones fail

• Disconnect the optical drive physically. If you're comfortable opening your PC case, unplug the SATA cable (or the ribbon cable for older drives) from the back of the CD/DVD drive. Power up without it. BitLocker won't see it, problem solved. This is a good option for desktops—on laptops, it's trickier.
• Use a blank disc or a non-bootable disc. Sometimes a disc that's scratched or has just data files still gets flagged as bootable. Put in a known blank DVD-R or a CD with only photos—anything that isn't bootable. Then restart. If the original disc was the issue, swapping it out might clear the error.
• Disable BitLocker temporarily. If you can boot into Windows (say after step 2 worked), open Control Panel, go to BitLocker Drive Encryption, and turn it off for the system drive. Reboot, make sure the disc is out, then turn BitLocker back on. This forces the encryption to reinitialize the boot configuration.

Prevention tip

Never leave a disc in the drive when you shut down—especially if it's a disc that could be bootable (like an OS installer, recovery disc, or even some driver CDs). Treat it like a key: take it out when you're done. Also, in your BIOS, set the boot order to put your primary hard drive first and the optical drive last or disabled. That way, even if you forget a disc in there, your system boots from the drive you actually use.