A portable profile carrier stores and securely transports a user's profile and data files from one computer to the next. The profile carrier is a two-component system comprising a smart card and a memory device. The smart card protects access to the memory device and authenticates a user via a passcode challenge. The composite profile carrier enables access to the user profile on the memory device when the smart card is present and the user is authenticated, and disables access when the smart card is absent or the user is not authenticated.