It recently occurred to me that the data on a typical computer's hard drive is not in the least bit safe. I've taken hard drives that have had corrupted Windows installations and put them in my secondary HDD bay and, lo and behold, I can read/copy/edit any file I want to. The password for a user is useless if the hard drive is plugged into another computer.
I have personal, as well as business files, on my laptop, and it really bothers me that if my laptop is stolen all those files are at the mercy of the thief. What can I do to keep my files safe from bad guys?