>VMs work on laptops. Another option, although more difficult, is to get another hard drive and swap them. Should be pretty cheap to pick one up.

Swapping main HD was something I tried a few years ago - did not sit well with me. Swapping a second HD in a 17' is another case - that worked quite well. Similar in 15' if you opt to work with SSD, HD and external DVD. Another option with most laptops is USB3: if the machine does not support it, an adapter is cheap and the speed are good enough for a multi-GB copy if that is really needed. Often just working with the external disk is good enough. YMMV...