Should You Encrypt Your Files?

Dear Computer Lady,

I’ve just read an article about safeguarding sensitive information on a laptop as you travel about on business. The article recommended encrypting the hard drive. How is that done?

Thank you, Joan

__–__

Dear Joan,

I chose your question today, not because I can give you easy step by step directions, but because I have seen people lose all their files because they encrypted their data without really knowing what they were doing.

You can find a complete description of how encryption works, what you need to do to be able to access your data in the event of a computer crash, and how to encrypt your data on the Microsoft web site at:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc875821.aspx

Take a look at the Microsoft article before you decide to encrypt the data on your computer. In my opinion, you should only do this if you work for a company that is large enough to have an IT department that will help you with creating recovery keys.

Elizabeth

Tags:
Previous Post

Green Check Mark Missing

Next Post

Can’t Open WMV Files