[Question] best way to check an unknown external drive relatively safely on Windows 10?

I could really use the extra storage right now but I know it's not best practice to just plug it into my PC. I'm tempted to risk it but I'm wondering if a virtual machine would provide any benefit? Unless I find any cool music I intend to wipe it (assuming it hasn't been already). Is virtualbox still the go to? I understand Linux would be a better option but I've given up trying to get my laptop to boot from a USB stick and the DVD drive seems to only read CDs. Haven't tried writing one but if that does work is there a good small distro I could try just for this purpose? Thank you.