Stac Electronics markets a disk compression utility called Stacker that not only increases your disk capacity but also lets you assign a password to it. Each time you boot up, you're asked to type in your password. Otherwise the entire drive remains inaccessible. Try booting up a computer several thousand time to figure out an unknown password. Most criminals would likely stick to robbing banks instead.
Some computer users feel that disk compression utilities slow up hard drive performance somewhat.
I've been using Stacker for several years and haven't noticed any speed bumps. You can also download SecureDrive , which claims its own hard-disk password security. Use PGP on your most sensitive files. Then encrypt the entire hard drive with a password-type program. Unless you're an international drug baron whose laptop has fallen into the hands of the FBI , these safety steps should be about all you'll need to regain the peace of mind you had before reading last week's On the Web column.