Another nice feature of TrueCrypt is that you can nest a volume within a volume. The result is that type in one password, and you see one thing. Type in another password, and you see another. It is impossible (nearly?) to detect whether this has been done. The result is that, if forced to give a password, you can, and they will only be able to see encrypted, but useless files.

I use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). I just use the free part for the sensitive files on my hard disk. I don't need the pay-for-it part that does email and whatnot.

PGP will encrypt a file or a directory of files, much like WinZip.

I am religious about keeping my financials encrypted. Glad of it when my hard disk died. Took it to a shop where they recovered the files. Since the shop couldn't decrypt them my info wasn't compromised.

Don't think about using crypto to hide illegal stuff. The 3-letter agencies have their ways.

Good point. Though, I don't know if that is true or not, anything that is stored in an encrypted manner is safer. To break the encryption would require a deliberate attempt by someone to open what is expected to be private. Without proper legal authorization, you would be protected, in many cases, from use of this information in prosecution. If you are a spy and operate outside of the law, then you probably have other methods than PGP.

However, as you pointed out, most of us are not concerned with financial files and not if the NSA can see my report regarding a confidential merger between two large pharmaceutical manufacturers. I am concerned that an immigration or customs officer reads this information and decides to cash in by selling the information to someone.