Windows 7 Home Premium: Encrypt My Documents How?

Okay.
I’ve just picked up a nice new Lenovo IdeaPad Y580.
Because I’d really hate to lose control of my personal data if it was stolen, I’d like to encrypt the “My Documents” folder on the system for my personal user, at the very least.
If I had the Ultimate Edition, this would seem to be pretty darned easy.
I’d rather avoid shelling out the money for this upgrade, though.
Any sane options?
Not looking to encrypt the whole drive or whole partition.
Thanks in advance!

Additional request:
The current scheme, lacking encryption, backs up all files in the BACKEDUP subfolder of My Documents to the IDrive service. I’d like something compatible with restoring files backed up there directly to other devices, without having to transfer the key.
Thanks in advance!

If you don’t want to go that route, Truecrypt allows you to encrypt a partition or even and entire storage device. http://www.truecrypt.org/

I don’t use Win 7 encryption so I cannot tell you the good and bad points about it. I do use Truecrypt because I store my data on external hard drives. It’s very powerful, in terms of encryption and access. If you ever forget your password, there is no turning back. It’s gone.

I’ve heard good stuff about TrueCrypt. Haven’t used it (yet), but iirc it can do just a regular folder, partition, or entire disk, even making a hidden drive should that be a user’s concern. Flexible, in other words.

Thanks for the TrueCrypt suggestion, I’ll take a look at it.