[Framers] Running FM from external device?

[Ken Poshedly]

Gang,

A little help requested here regarding my non-subscription installation of FrameMaker. Basically, can FM10 be run from an external hard drive? Also, can it be installed from a thumb-drive.

I legally own FrameMaker 10 and have no desire or need to upgrade (for financial and other reasons). I have installed it legally both on my desktop Windows 10 computer and (per the ULA) on my seldom-used Toshiba Windows 10 laptop.

The problem is that the Toshiba is about six or more years old and literally failing. It booted up just fine a few months ago, but then last weekend it wouldn't power up at all -- even after leaving it connected to its wall-charger overnight. I was told that the internal laptop battery was simply too expired to take or hold an external charge, so I purchased a new laptop battery ($$$) and left it overnight with wall-charger connected.

The next morning, the laptop powered up but with a black screen. After researching that problem (using my trusty desktop computer) and running a procedure, I was able to boot the laptop, but this time got a totally white screen. The online advice leans towards possible internal repairs/replacement -- stuff that just too pricey to do on this thing.

So I purchased a "newly remanufactured" HP laptop with an SSD and loads more speed and capacity (just under $400 at my local MicroCenter).

Ideally, I'd like to "deactivate" the FM10 installation on the Toshiba HD, then install it on the new HP laptop. (And that would require copying everything from my Adobe FM10 DVD onto a thumb-drive because newer laptops just don't have DVD drives.)

But I can't do that because of the "white screen" problem with the Toshiba and I don't have access to an external monitor.

I can easily pop the Toshiba laptop hard drive out, stick it in a case and run it from the new HP laptop via a USB cable as an external hard drive, but will FM10 run using that arrangement?

If not, then I guess I'll have to phone Adobe for their support in this matter. And can they deactivate only the laptop installation? And can FM10 be reinstalled from a thumb-drive?

-- Ken in Atlanta