Enabling hard-drive encryption can help you protect your personal information or valuable business data in case your laptop does go missing. Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions include a drive-encryption feature called BitLocker. Not all laptops have the necessary Trusted Platform Module to enable BitLocker, but if yours does, BitLocker could make the difference between losing just your laptop and losing your identity.
(Update: Reader Eric Vaccaro points out that there is a workaround for BitLocker which allows a flash drive to store the software's encryption keys in lieu of a TPM.)


















