Gordonbp said:
Looking for a utility that will encrypt my personal User folders....
Ta muchly!
Wikipedia has a whole list of stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_disk_encryption_software
Rather than encrypting just the user folder, I'd encrypt the
whole C: partition. That's to cover the temporary copies
various tools might make, while they're handling your
encrypted files. Windows "leaks like a sieve" in that
respect. Just encrypting a single folder, might leave all
sorts of garbage scattered all over C:.
Bitlocker is available for usage with certain versions of
Windows 7, and the installation of Windows 7 uses two
partitions, so the boot and system portions are kept separate.
This allows tools like Bitlocker to work, but may help other
full-partition encryption tools as well. (Encrypt C: and
leave SYSTEM RESERVED 100MB partition unencrypted.)
Always make sure you have a copy of a recovery disc. If
a package has a "best practices" document, make sure
you understand the best way to maintain the ability to
access the data. Some methods, if the registry is damaged,
some password changes, your machine is accidentally joined
to a domain or something, you may lose access to the encrypted
data. A recovery disc of some sort, should have enough information
to take the place of any damaged encryption keys.
It increases the odds of someone being able to decrypt
the data (i.e. someone finds your recovery disc), but it
also helps prevent unfortunate situations where a user
completely loses access to the data.
For full disk encryption, a package like Truecrypt is popular,
but you may want to research how often people have problems
getting to their data.
Paul
