Seagate thinks small with portable storage devices

Seagate wants to lighten the load for customers who need all their computer data with them--but not necessarily their computer.

At the Consumer Electronics Show next week, the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based hard-drive maker will show off a new line of pocket-size portable storage devices called FreeAgent. Ranging in sizes of up to 750GB, the FreeAgent devices are designed to allow consumers to take the entire contents of their computers--photos, music files, videos, software applications, documents, e-mail, Internet links--with them. The FreeAgent devices contain a drive as well as a software stack to manage and encrypt files.

As a result, consumers won't have to take their notebooks with them, Seagate contends. They can plug a fully synchronized FreeAgent device into a terminal at an airport or a PC at a hotel and work from the same files and applications through VPN (virtual private network). Seagate says FreeAgent devices won't leave passwords or data traces on remote computers.

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