installing and running windows programs off SD cards

[vhelp]

I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop, model 5520, w7 home prem, it has usb2 and usb3 and a SD card slot. So, for some time now, i've been considering securing my software investments: delphi ex7, and many expansive software components. In case I loose my laptop or it gets stolen, I won't loose my expansive and licensed software because they won't be on the laptop since they will be on SD cards.

I also saw that they make SD card duplicators. And I saw there is a hardware version for $139 on amazon and am considering getting if this endeavor works out.

http://www.amazon.com/BestDuplicator-SD300-Portable-microSD-Duplicator/dp/B005WLY7X8

The duplicator would be used as an hardware imager, plus, I considered the idea of making several same cards and just leaving each card, one for work and one for home, to use...just pop it into the slot and continue working and no worries about loosing the card(s) during traveling.

So, I picked up a few 64GB microSD cards on sale for $34 at bestbuy. And, I want to put these certain expansive (licensed) programs on them and run those programs from their. I am using the fastest form factor available to these cards which is currently 80 MB/s cards.

Yesterday, I started uninstalling those particular licensed software from my laptop and reinstalled them onto the microSD card, and then I backed up the card to another card, same 80MB/s form factor. By the way, it was the slowest process ever, for 93 thousand files, or 14.7GB took roughly an hour to complete, between 1.2MB/s to 7MB/s and hovering around 5MB/s transfer rate. Then, I test the software (delphi xe7) and found that the load up time was similar though not as fast. I considered convincing myself that it was worth the additional seconds it takes to load up. However, compiling for windows is another story, so it seems to take up some lag time, maybe around 15 seconds longer. But when compiling for android, wow. Its like the machine goes into suspended animation or something. maybe a minute or two before it finally starts compiling. I don't know whats up with that. But, I am using the build-in SD card slot on the laptop, thinking that it would be the fastest route to use. But now i'm not so sure.

I am wondering if getting a dedicated SD card reader/writer would be the correct thing to do. And if so, what would be the best performance card reader/writer to get for this laptop?

I'd appreciate any hints or tips on this endeavor, or if SD is not worth if for this, then what else can I use that would be light and micro small AND quick enough to eject from the laptop during traveling to/from my daily runs.

edit: i added additional notes after 2nd paragraph.

[aedipuss]

won't make any difference. no matter where you install protected commercial software the registration is linked to the o.s. registry and the program won't run on a different machine.

keep the originals safe and make sure to have hard copies of all serial numbers.

[vhelp]

won't make any difference. no matter where you install protected commercial software the registration is linked to the o.s. registry and the program won't run on a different machine.

True. But, if the laptop is stolen, and since the license is on the laptop as you said, since the software is not installed on the laptop, they would not be able to run it.

[Krispy Kritter]

If they are tech savvy, they could just pull the s/n from the registry and install the program.

In any case, assuming it was stolen, and you have the keys, you could simply reinstall yourself on another machine. Is it really worth the hassle, and slowness in your everyday use, just to keep someone else from being able to run the software in the event the laptop is actually stolen? You aren't "protecting" your software, you are simply trying to keep someone else from using it. If you have the license(s) and/or proof of purchase, you could easily reinstall or contact the vendor and have the old keys blacklisted and new keys issued.

[aedipuss]

if you are that worried about having the laptop stolen make the password strong and use bitlocker to encrypt the hard drive. or use a second layer of password protection like winlodkr installed on a removable thumb drive.

[theewizard]

i just replaced a laptop
i went online to my gmail files, did a search for the software name, and found the emails with my registrations
most of the Dls were stored as backup on an external drive
plug in HHD install SW enter reg codes
bamm back in buisness

[lingyi]

+1 on the posts above. The "investment" in your software is in the license keys. Any reputable software company will allow you to easily transfer your license to a new computer, probably with a new license key.

That said, flash drives (especially USB 3.0) are much faster than the best SD cards. There are micro flash drives that stick out less than 1/4" from the usb jack.

If you're really paranoid, you could run everything from a flash drive in a Virtual Machine on your laptop. Remove the drive and there's nothing but your minimal Windows left behind.