“Should I encrypt my computer hard drive?”

Depending on how you perform the encryption, yes.

I don’t recommend whole-drive encryption because the encrypting is effectively part of the operating system. That is convenient, and can work great if the user is careful and knows what they’re doing. But it can lead to lockout issues even if the files themselves would otherwise be fine. An error with whole disk encryption can literally lock you out of your whole disk and all its contents.

File-and-folder encryption avoids this. It can be just as secure as whole-disk encryption, but to the OS, your encrypted files are just files, nothing fancy. Backup/restore/copy/send/whatever operations all operate utterly normally, with zero extra complications or risk; and your files and folders remain fully encrypted no matter where or how they’re moved — even off-disk, such as to cloud storage; to a thumb drive; to a new PC; or to a different OS.

Also, problems and errors with file-and-folder encryption are usually confined only to the files and folders actively being en- or de-crypted — not the whole disk.

File-and-folder encryption tools are widely available. For example, the free, open-source 7-Zip can encrypt your files and folders to the AES-256 standard; which is at present regarded as uncrackable.

Combined with a good password manager (to generate long, complex passwords and remember them for you), file-and-folder encryption tools like 7-Zip are easy to use and make your data very, very secure.

(7-Zip can also compress your files, if you need space.)

So, yes, encrypt. But choose carefully so you don’t add needless complications to your quest for security. 🙂

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