I found an old HDD from a laptop and I'm worried it might have viruses on it. I want to check if there are any family photos stored on it. Is it safe to explore the contents of the HDD using a Linux live USB, without actually installing anything? I don't have another HDD or SSD right now, which is why I'm considering formatting this old HDD and installing Linux Mint on it. I know that using an HDD with a 3 Gb/s speed isn't ideal for Linux, but I just want to try it out for a few days before I think about getting a proper SSD. Any advice?
2 Answers
Just a heads up: while you can move photos from the HDD to another storage device, you should have that secondary device ready. The live USB session won’t retain any of your files after a reboot. So, get that other drive prepped in advance to save any special memories you find!
Yes, you can definitely check the HDD using a live Linux USB! Just keep in mind that anything you create or modify in that live session won't be saved once you shut down. So if you find any photos you want to keep, you'll need a separate drive to copy them onto—make sure that drive is formatted in a way that works across different systems, like exFAT. It’s a good way to check things without installing anything on your machine.
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