Notebook Security

I'm told that it's easy to hack through both windows xp user passwords and even harddrive(bios?) passwords with software easily obtainable. I've been give the charge of making our company laptops safe from prying eyes in the event they're lost or stolen. Is it possible? Are even the fingerprint scanners really secure? From what I've read(which is little) I get the feeling that it turns your print into a password. If thats the case can the password hacking software not hack that also? If anyone knows of a way or ways to really secure the data on a pc please help a not so major geek out....