Can I/how do I boot from a Win7 HDD while in Win10?

[clabbers]

Hi. My laptop just stopped working several weeks ago. I had to get a new computer which updated to Win10 just after I got it.
Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I bought a 2.5" HDD enclosure. I carefully removed not one but two drives from my laptop (unbelievably easy) and popped them into their enclosures. My real problem is in the process all my pictures from the past are refusing to show up. I need to boot the Win7 drives to see if they are there. I backed hem up to my external drive at the time but don't see the pics on either drive when in Win10. I don't even know if booting from Win7 will work.
What I'm hoping for is some simple explanation on how you tell the computer which version of Windows to use. Any help is gratefully received.
Thank You

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

You don't need to boot from a hard drive to see it's contents (you can't boot Windows from an external hard drive anyway). Windows 10 should be able see the contents of those external hard drives without any problems if the drives are detected in Windows 10.

The only issue would be that you would have to take ownership of your user account folders on the external hard drive since you're using a different user account (in Windows 10) to access them. Otherwise you just get "Access denied" message. http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-take-ownership-and-get-full-access-to-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/

 

[clabbers]

Thank you for the reply. The hard drive I've got in the HDD case was the one that originally had Win7 installed on it when it was in the laptop. Does that make any difference to boot from it?

You information about taking ownership is very interesting. Do I just choose an ownership name randomly or do I use the Win7 registration number?

It looks like the laptop's problem was technical as opposed to software. In your opinion, can I test i again by using the original hard drive with a usb connection instead of having to reinstall it back into the laptop. I'm now thinking it's either the motherboard or the fan. It used to get very hot and I did everything to keep it cool I could. It seems a real shame to give up on it even though I do prefer a desktop. Oops, just answered this question. I hooked up the drive with usb conx and got bupkiss. I did, however, also hook up the desktop to the laptop video conx and nothing on the screen. The laptop went on and the fan started briefly and then went quiet very quickly after. Power, capslock, and wifi lights came on but no other response. Wouldn't power off with the on/off switch.
New question comes to mind - if the fan has failed would this be the symptom? Or if the video card or monitor screen have failed could these be symptoms as well? My head spins with possibilities.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

"The hard drive I've got in the HDD case was the one that originally had Win7 installed on it when it was in the laptop. Does that make any difference to boot from it?"

As I said earlier, you cannot boot Windows from an external hard drive anyway.

"You information about taking ownership is very interesting. Do I just choose an ownership name randomly or do I use the Win7 registration number?"

In the 'Security' section of a folder's properties, you select your own Windows 10 user account, then modify the folder's permissions (ie the folder you want to have access to on the external hard drive).

On the hardware side of laptops, I'm afraid that's not my area of expertise.