Who needs a stationary hard drive any way?

Labtops are taking over desktops. More and more people are buying laptops these days. I can see why, they are more convinient. As a business traveler, it is not easy sometimes to bring along the laptop and the power stuff that it needs. Plus going through airport security is a hassle.

The external hard drives are getting large in memory size while their physical size is getting smaller. So small that some fit into your pocket. Also, external thumb drive are getting large in memory size so can fit a lot of apps and even an operating system.

It will be great to have a solution where the hard drive is not only mobile with an exact/synched image of the one you have at home or office but small enough to fit in your pocket. Now, you can take it with you where you need to go. You can plugin into any PC or laptop to run directly from this USB connected hard drive or thumb drive. It includes all your data, your operating system and all your favorite apps.

Imagine kiosks are also available for people to plugin - Starbucks, airport kiosks, mall kiosks or Internet cafes and any hot spot location. The idea is that you can plugin at any location and have the same environment as you would at home because you brought your hard drive along.

Also, for companies, employees can travel or go to meeting rooms with just their thumb drives. The meeting rooms are already set with the standard laptop hardware. This would solve many IT problems. It might create new ones, though. However, I would imagine solving more problems than creating new ones.

I do see some implementation issues that need to be resolved. For one, it is not personal as in "this is my machine". However, it might solve many problems others have. It is simple and quick when you are in need. Also, it will most likely run slower than an integrated hard drive but the USB is getting faster. One could also argue, this issue is already resolved by mobile PDAs, iPhone and other connectivity devices. However, the operating environment is not the same.

By the way, I did do some research and I could not find any company that offer any thing similar at least for the hard drive solution. The main limitation is having a laptop that would run from an external hard drive or thumb drive over USB.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments - please reply. I am interested in what people have seen out there.

That is it for now...