I have a question maybe someone can shed some light on...

I have my computer password protected and it is pretty secure. I am familiar with boot-protecting as well as simple Windows password for login, but I got to thinking last night... What's to stop someone from just yanking my HD out, plugging it into another computer and accessing the files that way? Not that anyone I know would try to do that, but in the case the compter got stolen or something along that lines...

So is there such a thing that will require a password before you can access the hard disk?

i think there are a number of programs that will allow you to encrypt parts of your harddrive in some sort of container file.

I think encrypting of your windows partition wont work. But you could store confidential business files into a virtual drive that is encrypted and protected by some kind of program.

I believe Safehouse is a very common application... maybe just do a search for "encryption" "drive" "protect" on google and i guess it should give you some commercial results.