Editor's words FreeOTFE

FreeOTFE is a free, open source, "on-the-fly" transparent disk encryption program for PCs and PDAs.
The purpose of this software is to create one or more "virtual disks" on your PC/PDA. These disks operate exactly like a normal disk, with the exception that anything written to one of them is transparently, and securely, encrypted before being stored on your computer's hard drive.

Installation

The installation process is simple and requires minimum user intervention (the default installation folder can be changed).

Creating a new volume

The strongest point of FreeOTFE is the full wizard included for creating new volumes. It really does the job. When you read encryption you might think of something complicated, with lots of hard to understand options, but it's not like that at all. The wizard consist of 8 steps with full explanations. The default suggestion is always the best for the beginner user and should be taken into account.
First four steps represents the basic settings for your new "virtual disk". Step 1 and 2 ask will ask you to choose between volume file or partition/entire disk. I took the first option and went to step 3 where the name of the volume file is asked. Here you have the opportunity to create a hidden volume file inside an existing volume file. Next, in step 4, you can select the size of the new volume you are creating. Quite simple so far.
The last four steps are all about securing your data. You select hash and cypher algorithms, a random number generator and most important a password, which you better not forget because there is no way you can ever see your data without it. No one will ask you about your pet name to help you recover the password. It will be all lost, so remember the password.
Finished. As I said, it's quite simple and the wizard is very helpful. All you have to know now is that you have a well secured virtual disk. If you insist to know "how" is this possible you can download the source code which is freely available, but I guess you don't really want to go there.

Using the newly created volume

In order to use the new virtual disk created you just have to mount it. A new drive letter will be created and you will be able to use it as a regular hard drive partition.
One little tip here, format your new "disk" to be able to use it.

Portable mode

This is a very interesting and useful feature. You can use FreeOTFE without actually install it. What I don't like is that you don't know if your drivers are working in portable mode or not, even though I clicked on the "world" icon several times.

Support

A detailed help comes with a program and a FAQ section is available on the publisher site. If problems are still not solved support is available through email.


Conclusion

FreeOTFE is a free, open source, "on-the-fly" transparent disk encryption program for PCs and PDAs featured with an easy to use interface. The integrated wizard makes it very easy to configure and use a new volume encrypted to protect your data. Portable mode make this program even more interesting and people using OTFE utilities should really give it a try.