7-zip, although not really specialized encryption program, has quite strong encryption.

Oy here we go again.

Encrypted digital data is NOT - not not not not suitable for emergency records. In fact, expecting your USB drive to be in any way useful in a real emergency is at best a fantasy and at worst dangerous.

I was a firefighter for six years, I did many rescues,auto extrications, etc. Of the ambulances, fire trucks, helicopters, rescue vehicles or command vehicles I worked in and with, of the few with computers on board, NONE were able to read a USB key.

At the emergency room, 0% of the computers in use could read a USB drive.

I'm now the emergency management coordinator for a local township, but I'm training up to go further. There's no model in the various national response plans and communications plans to utilize data stored on unknown devices that are handed to you by someone.

Further, a scan of a driver's license is not recognized by any agency as a legitimate identification, any more than a scan of a credit card would be accepted at a store for payment. A scan of a birth certificate? Useless.

You'd do better simply writing a list of document identification numbers, expiration and the like on a sheet of paper and using that for your emergency records.

We can go into medical records deeper later, but I asked a Dr. to email me the MRI of my head and they simply laughed at me. "No, this system will never touch the internet" and so I handed them my USB drive and they were like, "You're joking right?"

MRI. The only way they would give that info to my wife was on a DVD. They copied her spinal MRI onto that disc so she could take it to her new doctor. Or as I have heard it called, the sneaker network!

You're not looking at this in the way I am. Nobody expects (or should expect) "the authorities" to plug your USB drive into their computer and take what is found there as positive identification. However, the encrypted data is very useful for individuals involved in a crisis. You've lost your dog in the paniced transportation mess? Why not print out a picture from your USB drive using a friends computer, the library computer ... not from "the authorities computer". Need to find the phone number and account info so you can call your credit card issuer to cancel your account? Why not have that info encrypted on a USB drive? Need to locate the VIN and license plate number from your car so you can report it to the police as stolen? Store that stuff on your USB drive. You would need to find a computer to host the USB drive on, certainly. But the authorities are not the only people with computers. You could even buy yourself a new/used computer after the disaster if you really need your own to work with (and yuo just might).

I have an 8gig mini-thumb drive in my wallet. It has been there for several years now. Originally it was a test to see if it could survive. No problems encountered (yet).

So I gradually filled it with all kinds of stuff. I travel a lot so I included scans of my medical records, licenses and all that sort of thing. All encrypted with TrueCrypt. I also have portable applications for my browser, e-mail client and many other programs. I update it frequently. It is an image of a SDHC chip I keep in my main computer, but which gets moved from machine to machine as needed (I have 4 working computers).

I also have the manuals for all my ham radio equipment, the entire service manual for my Dodge Diesel 3500 4x4, A gigantic library of military and other reference material. A very good medical library (Grays anatomy, Where there is no doctor, Ships Capt. Medical manual and much much more), all available from the nearest computer.

Over the years I have found it invaluable. I was traveling when I became sick and was able to print out my base line laboratory results to be compared with those being done. I have used the scans of credit cards to notify customer service when I had a problem. The list goes on and on....

the upshot is that it works for me.....and very well. True, no Doc is gonna let me use his computer, but there always seems to be a friend or someplace that I can find to retrieve the needed data. Even during Katrina when I responded to New Orleans with the Red Cross, I was able to find a satisfactory computer to get my e-mail client to run.

Next I think I will add a mini linux operating system so I have better control. Truecrypt runs nicely under linux by the way. I will have to do something about the portable applications (see http://portableapps.com/ for details about portable applications).

True, it is of little use during a medical emergency. But it sure has been handy for a lot of other incidents. I don't leave home without it.

Nomad

You can install Ubuntu on a usb in persistent mode (meaning you can save settings and install apps and it'll be there when you reboot off the usb next time).
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-ubuntu-804-persistent-install-tutorial/

That way, you don't even need portable apps... you boot off into your own computer and your good to go.

Personally, I have two usb keys with this setup; a personal computer version with all the usual coding IDE's and stuff and another which is a LAMP server. That way, I can covert any pc to a server on the fly with a simple reboot.

Thanks, as this is the purpose I was trying to state.

Let's say I have to beat feet, a hurricaine perhaps. I grab the flash drive and all my needed info is handy. It rides on a chain on my neck, along with my dog tags. I have a ton of information in a small package, instead of all the paper that contains the information. The most important things I think would be the insurance info contact numbers and policy numbers.

If I need to get info, I am sure I can find a laptop with a USB port someplace.

And yes, I think that even without encryption the info would be safe.

Didn't mean to start a puter geek firestorm, sorry.

To furthur what martinfocazio said. If you do manage to find someone who will allow you to plug your USB drive into their computer then thats not a computer I would be comfortable plugging in to anyway. Most companies have policies against it and have implemented some form of security to prevent the ports from working. The ones that do allow it there is no telling what those might be infected with. At very least make sure the drive your has some form of write protection but even then there is no telling what kind of keyloggers or other data miners may be on that computer.
I downsized from a 12" laptop to a 9" netbook for this very reason, there is no way I'm going t plug a drive full of my data into some unknown system, with most of the world running Microsoft windows there is just too much risk.