In response to the recent thread regarding laptop inspection by customs, I would suggest that anyone with concerns consider the following software.  While there are commercial equivalents to both of these products, I recommend these because they are (1)  free, and (2) of extremely high quality.  Because they are open-source, many eyes have looked at the program code, and you can be assured there are no “back doors” or other “gotchas”.

Eraser (http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php)
Why you need it:
We all know that when you delete a file, it is moved to the garbage bin, which must subsequently be “emptied” to fully delete the file.  It is also important to understand that, technically, the only thing that is “fully” deleted is the first character of the file name; the rest of the file data is simply marked as available for re-use.  (I’m simplifying here.)  All of the other data that made up the file is therefore still out there, and can be recovered using readily-available software.
What Eraser does:
When you run this program, it will overwrite all the space marked as “available for use” with random data, thus ensuring that it is well and truly gone for good.  It also works on camera memory cards in the same way.

TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/)
Why you need it:
If you have sensitive files, and want to prevent access to them, TrueCrypt is a godsend.
What TrueCrypt does:
You use TrueCrypt to create a big encrypted passworded file on your C: drive (hard drive).  TrueCrypt then creates a fake drive (“virtual drive” for you techies out there), called, for instance, the “E:” drive.  Anything you put on the “E:” drive is encrypted by TrueCrypt and written to a part of the big file on your C: drive.  Also has utilities for setting up encryption on things like thumb drives.  Many other very nice (if somewhat technical) features as well, if you read the website.

Hope this helps!

Eraser ( http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php )
TrueCrypt ( http://www.truecrypt.org/ )

Thanks for the links.  Just one point:  if you are going to put hotlinks in brackets in your message, you must leave a space between the first and last letters in the URL address.  If you have no space the software "thinks" the brackets are part of the address, gets confused, and does not allow the proper hot linking.

Cheers ...