Question SSD-USB adapter as Windows installer disk

[Pimpom]

Entry level SSDs are now comparable in price to thumb drives of the same capacity while being much faster. I have a SATA-to-USB adapter that I've been using for some time now. There are NVMe to USB adapters too, although the speed is limited to USB speeds.

If such an SSD-adapter combination were to be used as, say, a Windows 10 installation disk, will it be recognized as such by the motherboard?
I'd just try it out and see except that I don't have a spare SSD right now.

 

[TerryLaze]

It depends on the controller, if it shows up as a drive in bios it will work.

 

[johnbl]

newer motherboards, should work with usb 3 and usb 2

older motherboards it would work with usb 2.x but not usb 3.0
(older motherboards had an external usb 3 chip that had to have a driver loaded before it could be used)

not sure how well it would work on motherboards that use intel thunderbolt as a backbone for the usb3 and usb 2. (might just be fine)

 

[USAFRet]

Entry level SSDs are now comparable in price to thumb drives of the same capacity

A 3 pack of SanDisk 32gb ea can be had for $17.
For the OS install drive, you don't need larger than that.

An SSD + adapter, if at $17, will be of far less quality.