What is considered the best Encryption/Password program for either encrypting or password protecting folders or hard drives to foil cracking attempts from big brother, my reasoning is that if its that good then the average nuisance will not be able to break it either? Thank you.

I use PGP 6.5.8ckt.

I was looking into PGP, does the freeware version allow folder and hard drive password/encryption? When I was trying it out, I experimented with encrypting a folder and it made a lock icon but then the original was right next to it with no protection, was I supposed to delete the original? How do you like it as it seemed a little awkward to me; but I havent used any progs like this so I am unfamiliar with them?

You can encrypt files and folders with it. You can also encrypt text files the way that you can read them with Secure Viewer. No need to extract then. It doesn't offer whole drive encryption. Check the "Wipe Original" option, so that the original source will be securely deleted. I like it. It integrates to context menu, so it's easy and fast to encrypt files and folders. Here's the direct download link: ftp://ftp.zedz.net/pub/crypto/pgp/pgp60/pgp658_ckt/pgp658ckt08.zip It can be a bit tricky to set up, so try to find some guides. Here's one guide: http://www.tbns.net/sino/download/P... Here's some info about this PGP 6.5.8 CKT: "Currently, the only PGP version (for Windows) I prefer is PGP 6.5.8 CKT build. I strongly suggest you to download and use PGP 6.5.8 CKT build. The reasons are PGP 6.5.8 was the last PGP version that was released with source code. The source code has been reviewed by many experts and is unlikely to have back doors. PGP 6.5.8 CKT build is freeware. PGP 6.5.8 CKT build is full-featured. It includes some features which are usually only availiable in commercial versions, such as PGPdisk and PGPnet. PGP 6.5.8 CKT build supports much longer keys than official versions. It fully supports 16384-bit RSA key and 8196-bit DH key! I have been using PGP CKT build for years since PGP 6.0.2. I think it is secure, stable, and free of major problems. I personally recommend it to my visitors around the world."

It can encrypt files in a folder quite well, can it also lock the folder too?

You can just encrypt with it. It's much much stronger than just a password protection. Remember you can't encrypt any files and folders, that some programs will use, since the program doesn't recognize the files/folder after that.

Thank you for all of your help.