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I am currently running Windows 7 RC x64 on my home system, and am interested in encrypting my hard drive. I've heard good things about TrueCrypt, but am curious what other folks might suggest. I primarily use my system for software development, so am concerned about any system performance degradation that encryption might introduce.

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TrueCrypt is the de facto standard.

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

The following features are planned to be implemented in future versions:

Full support for Windows 7

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  • I installed TrueCrypt 7.0. Works great with no issues. Incidentally, the new version now supports hardware-accelerated AES. I see no performance issues or system degradation whatsoever.
    – David Frautnick
    Jul 29, 2010 at 14:52
  • Please note TrueCrypt development was ended in 04/2014 and isn't secure anymore.
    – jdepypere
    Jun 25, 2015 at 12:10
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Windows 7 has full disk encryption built in with Bitlocker. You will have it available in the RC but come RTM it will only be available in the Enterpise and Ultimate editions.

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    Is the source code available for BitLocker? I believe it isn't (it is for TrueCrypt.org though), and from a security perspective this eliminates BitLocker as a possible option because I can't review the source code. (For encryption and security software, open source is extremely important because anyone can review the code.)
    – Randolf Richardson
    Sep 17, 2011 at 16:02
  • @RandolfRichardson, Depends on who you are trying to hide from. If you are trying to hide from the US gov, you can be sure that Windows has "some contracts" that allows the FBI to backdoor.
    – Pacerier
    May 20, 2015 at 8:28
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As you mentioned, there's TrueCrypt.

There's also PGP Whole Disk Encryption.

If you purchase Windows 7 Ultimate, you'll also have BitLocker built in, which is one of the few compelling features of Ultimate.

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  • I bought the PGP disk encryption software way back in the day. They discovered a bug in the software and decided to wait until the next major version to patch it. That version was not available as a free upgrade. This was quite some time ago, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
    – ChrisInEdmonton
    Jul 17, 2009 at 17:42
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I use Dekart private disk. It ships with AES 256-bit encryption and can be used from a memory stick.

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