Can You Use Deep Freeze on a Flash Drive?

Deep Freeze works by keeping a record of all the files on a hard drive, including system files and the operating system, as of a given point in time. Whenever the computer is restarted, Deep Freeze automatically restores these files to their original state and removes any other files. This means that any changes made on the computer since the last restart are undone.

The main reason for using Deep Freeze is to make a computer available to multiple users while disallowing the ability to make permanent changes. Examples could include computers in a library, school or Internet cafe. Deep Freeze can also be useful if you want an easy way to test new software or configurations without the risk of making irreversible changes to your computer.

Deep Freeze can protect only a fixed hard drive, not a removable one such as a USB stick. However, you can use a removable drive when using Deep Freeze to save any files or work you created while working on the computer. Although you can save files to the protected hard drive temporarily, these files are removed (or reverted to their original state) upon restarting the computer. Any files saved to a removable drive remain on that removable drive.

Removable drives can also be used to get around Deep Freeze's protection. If someone can boot the computer from a removable drive before it boots from the hard drive, he may be able to directly access the hard drive's contents before Deep Freeze takes effect and then make permanent changes to key files or the operating system. The person who installed Deep Freeze can prevent this workaround by making sure the boot settings require the computer to boot from the hard drive first and then password-protecting the boot settings themselves to keep a user from changing the boot order.