(I phrase this as a question because it'd be great if we could have some HN skepticism on this thing. Personally, I think everything basically checks out: open source, free, there's a name, phone number, address, picture etc.)
I worked on a small software package for a financial firm that used AxCrypt for encryption. It wasn't bad from a program integration perspective. I can't personally verify the cryptographic security of it. Like codeulike said, it's a per-file based encryption. No virtual disk services.
AxCrypt looks solid for your purpose. Obviously if you are whoever it is who replaced Bin Laden you can't even trust your keyboard -- it might be reporting what you type to the NSA -- but for ordinary users it is a good choice. Plus, it is mature and unlikely to destroy your data through a bug.
http://www.axantum.com/axcrypt/
(I phrase this as a question because it'd be great if we could have some HN skepticism on this thing. Personally, I think everything basically checks out: open source, free, there's a name, phone number, address, picture etc.)