How to prepare your PC or laptop for theft [closed]

"Here are a few detailed tips & tricks (mostly from Lifehacker)

10 Tips to Keep Your Notebook Safe when Traveling

How to Set Up a Laptop Security System

You could
1 put some baby photos as wallpaper or in the laptop bag
2 Never use a Laptop bag (thats a neon sign)
3 Uglify your laptop if you are visiting a crime prone area

Use Software

Top 10 Ways to Lock Down Your Data

Prey Phones Home to Help You Recover Your Stolen Laptop

Goto: Lifehacker for many other articles on theft."

"I purchased 4 year protection from Lojack for Laptops. They have you install something that gets embedded in the BIOS. It allows tracking of the laptop to still be possible, even after a reformat. They also maintain a relationship with law enforcement to quickly determine the location of any activations after theft.

I can't testify to their recovery efficiency, b/c the laptop was never stolen. But at least one time, I got a email warning ""LoJack for Laptops has not received contact from your computer - Action Required"". I had to call the owner and they confirmed, ""Yeah, I haven't turned on my computer in over a month, how'd you know?""

They have other testimonials here: http://www.absolute.com/resource_center/search?market=home. I was satisfied with the piece of mind it bought."

"A couple simple tips:

Do not have your machine auto login. Make sure you have to type in a password.
Try and avoid using password savers or anything in that category. This includes browser auto save/fill features.
Keep rarely accessed sensitive documents backed up and stored on another drive.
Encryption will help greatly in preventing/delaying most average thieves out of your stuff.
Password protect sensitive files on the machine

Keep in mind however, no security measure is perfect, but you can make it very difficult for most dumb thieves out there."
"A couple simple tips:

Do not have your machine auto login. Make sure you have to type in a password.
Try and avoid using password savers or anything in that category. This includes browser auto save/fill features.
Keep rarely accessed sensitive documents backed up and stored on another drive.
Encryption will help greatly in preventing/delaying most average thieves out of your stuff.
Password protect sensitive files on the machine

Keep in mind however, no security measure is perfect, but you can make it very difficult for most dumb thieves out there."

"There is only one thing you would need to do if you only want to have one security measure: system wide encryption, say with TrueCrypt.

Note: I am not saying TrueCrypt will solve all your backup issue, but for the security matter I do not see any other solutions as a requirement. With system wide encryption, your data is safe. The end. Your backups is a different matter, but that's something I'll leave to someone else to give an insightful view upon."

"I assume that someone is going to take off with my computer eventually. So far I've been wrong. But what I do:

Backups are run weekly and tested monthly. At a minimum.
Backups are stored separate from the laptop. I have two sets of backups: Vista Backups on a USB drive attached to a dock in a secure location, and one online-backup that my employer has me run.
Important data should never be stored exclusively on the laptop. My mail is delivered through Exchange, and all my mail is stored on the server, even though it is cached locally.
Sensitive data is encrypted on the laptop, and kept there only as required. I have a small TrueCrypt file that I use to store the sensitive stuff when working off line. However with connectivity being what it is these days, I can usually get at that kind of information through VPNs just as easily, so it is rare that I have stuff locally.

My goal has always been to assume that the laptop is going to die or be stolen or whatever, and to have a zero data loss when that happens. I'm not there, but all the important stuff is protected."