[SOLVED] Running Windows 10 from a bootable USB flash drive will cause any harm to current OS and files?

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cupax

Jul 2, 2019
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My laptop is running on Windows 7. I want to test Windows 10 before upgrading my system. I have decided to install Windows 10 in a bootable USB flash drive and run it.

My question is that after I change the boot sequence and run Windows 10 in my laptop using USB then will it cause any harm to my already installed Windows 7 in laptop hard disk and its files inducing system and personal files?

I do not tend to access any files stored in my laptop while running and testing Windows 10.
 
Solution
captaincharisma
depending on how powerful your laptop is you could run a copy of windows 10 as a virtual machine within windows 7 using a program like vmware player. virtual machines are isolated and there wouldn't be any way it would make any changes that would mess up you main windows install
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I would make a system repair disk for W7 (just open start and type that into the run box to find the wizard) just to be on the safe side. It is a good tool to have anyway and only requires one CD or small USB stick.

I assume that you are using something like WinToUSB to make the W10 boot drive?
 
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depending on how powerful your laptop is you could run a copy of windows 10 as a virtual machine within windows 7 using a program like vmware player. virtual machines are isolated and there wouldn't be any way it would make any changes that would mess up you main windows install
 
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Solution
RealBeast said:
I would make a system repair disk for W7 (just open start and type that into the run box to find the wizard) just to be on the safe side. It is a good tool to have anyway and only requires one CD or small USB stick.

I assume that you are using something like WinToUSB to make the W10 boot drive?
Click to expand...
That's only for recovery of system files right?
Yes, you assumed correctly that I will be using software like WintoUSB or Rufus.
 
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captaincharisma said:
depending on how powerful your laptop is you could run a copy of windows 10 as a virtual machine within windows 7 using a program like vmware player. virtual machines are isolated and there wouldn't be any way it would make any changes that would mess up you main windows install
Click to expand...
That is a great option indeed. My only concern about using Virtual box is that my resources will be divided ( mainly RAM ). That is why I decided to use USB drive to use my resources fully but there is concern about speed too.
 
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cupax said:
That's only for recovery of system files right?
Yes, you assumed correctly that I will be using software like WintoUSB or Rufus.
Click to expand...
It's most useful to repair your MBR to the correct boot disk when cloning or otherwise playing with your OS drive.

While a USB boot can help do repairs (I usually use a Live Linux stick), not a great way to test drive W10.

I agree with the USB boot being too slow to give you a real good look at W10 though -- a VM, or just clone your drive or pull the OS drive and install on another attached drive would give you better results.
 
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cupax said:
I do not tend to access any files stored in my laptop while running and testing Windows 10.
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The only way to truly prevent that is to physically disconnect the internal drive in the laptop.
Windows WILL scan that drive, if only to show it in File Explorer as another drive letter.

A VirtualBox VM is what is wanted here.
You have 16GB RAM. Devote 4GB of that to a VB instance for this Win 10 'test'. It will run just fine, and not kill the host.
I have 32GB RAM, and sometimes run 4 or 5 VM's simultaneously. Win 10, Server 2012, a couple of flavors of Linux...

Although...what are you actually 'testing' in Win 10?
 
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USAFRet said:
The only way to truly prevent that is to physically disconnect the internal drive in the laptop.
Windows WILL scan that drive, if only to show it in File Explorer as another drive letter.

A VirtualBox VM is what is wanted here.
You have 16GB RAM. Devote 4GB of that to a VB instance for this Win 10 'test'. It will run just fine, and not kill the host.
I have 32GB RAM, and sometimes run 4 or 5 VM's simultaneously. Win 10, Server 2012, a couple of flavors of Linux...

Although...what are you actually 'testing' in Win 10?
Click to expand...
Okay I will apply your method.
I simply want to run trial of Adobe Lightroom as it is not compatible with my current OS. It requires only latest version of Windows 10 too.
 
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So you want to test an application, not the actual OS.
Well, Lightroom wants more than a basic 4GB RAM. You can try it, but it won't run well if you're doing any major image editing. So that's not giving it a proper 'test'.
(I use Lightroom daily)

There is an opensource alternative to Lightroom, darktable. It will almost certainly run in your current Win 7.

Lastly, Win 7 falls off all support from Microsoft in a few months. So you really want to move off that anyway.
 
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cupax said:
That is a great option indeed. My only concern about using Virtual box is that my resources will be divided ( mainly RAM ). That is why I decided to use USB drive to use my resources fully but there is concern about speed too.
Click to expand...

that's why i mentioned about if your laptop is powerful enough. either way running it in a VM would still be faster then running it off a USB drive. especially if your laptop only has slow USB 2.0 ports

i tried running a copy of windows 10 before from a USB 3.0 external HDD and it was really slow
 
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