If you are ever going to commit a crime, don't use a computer. If you do, you will get it caught. It's that simple.
If someone has a warrant to seize your computer, and you encrypt it's contents, you can be compelled to remove the encryption. If you don't, then you have committed obstruction of justice, and you are going to go to jail anyways.
Strong encryption will protect against the case where someone has your computer, but not you. However, if they have both you and your computer, its not going to protect you.
Also, are you sure that the Windows 7 hidden partition is used for the Volume Shadow Copy Service? My understanding is that it's only used for storing system files, not user documents.
Your user documents (and their backups) should be stored on the system volume (not the hidden partition), and hence should be covered by your encryption software.
If someone has a warrant to seize your computer, and you encrypt it's contents, you can be compelled to remove the encryption. If you don't, then you have committed obstruction of justice, and you are going to go to jail anyways.
Strong encryption will protect against the case where someone has your computer, but not you. However, if they have both you and your computer, its not going to protect you.
Also, are you sure that the Windows 7 hidden partition is used for the Volume Shadow Copy Service? My understanding is that it's only used for storing system files, not user documents.
Your user documents (and their backups) should be stored on the system volume (not the hidden partition), and hence should be covered by your encryption software.