Anahata -

In WinXP, if you password protect a file, the file IS ENCRYPTED, and the encryption is very strong. You don't need any junkware extra program to do it for you.

If you want, you can apply a password to an entire drive, and the entire drive is encrypted.

The encryption is VERY STRONG and if anything goes even slightly wrong, NOTHING IS RECOVERABLE from the password protected parts of the drive.

If you run CHKDSK in any Windows version, or run the WinXP "Check for errors" without checking the "automatically fix errors option," you wil find "lost clusters" on any hard drive that's been run for a week. Hard drives use a lot of very sophisticated error correcting code, and are very tolerant of minor bit errors. Lots of errors occur. Such errors are no problem in ordinary use since the drive controller can correct things. If any of those errors, however, occurs in a "password protected" file (encrypted) or in any of the several "password management files" the password protected part of the drive is GONE FOREVER.

If your "add-on" program is even remotely as effective as the built in protections that Win2K, WinXP and later offer, it will have the same "features."

WinXP includes some very powerful "recovery tools" that, hopefully, you've never needed to know exist. Most files can be recovered, using the built-in tools even from drives so far gone that the computer can't even recognize that they are a hard drive. NO PASSWORD PROTECTED FILES can be recovered by these tools.

Wear your chastity belt when you must, but recognize that it's going to cause boils and bruises and chafing if used excessively.

John