J_RaD - 7:30 pm on May 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

I've never tried one of these before. but basically, would it prevent people from even booting up the computer ? or at-least getting a password prompt before the Windows screen even appears ?

right, before ANYTHING loads you get prompted for a pass, no pass? no dice.

remove the drive and stick it in another machine? unreadable!

as stated you will take a perf hit but if your stuff has to be safe you won't mind.

a) use the password option in the BIOS

huh? c'mon those don't work!