Windows XP cannot open my data anymore

[surveyor1000]

Hi to all,

will make this short to start with so if in the wrong place please let me know.

last week my OS died after my power unit died "tripped the mains" on replacing the unit the PC worked but seemed to have lost the OS on the drive so re-installed thinking all was ok,

everthing was ok until tried to access all my backed up files on the 200gb USB external slave drive, it has all my math calcs/work/Family history ETC....

few years back when working in london i encrypted my folder on the external drive just in case it was stolen or lost when going to and from the office. "thought it was a good idea at the time" now cannot open any .ppt .xls .doc and .jpg's

Am desperate to get this info back and spent over £100 so far trying without success,

once again if in the wrong place i am sorry and if possible can some-one point me in the right direction

Thanks

Derek

 

[Ian]

Hi Derek,

I'll move this to the Windows Software forum now for you. You'll have to tell us much more about your system so that we can help you, for example : Which OS are you using, what did you use to encrypt the drive, what happens when you try to open files?

 

[surveyor1000]

Ian

Thanks for the reply will attempt to explain a bit further

Currently using xp for the last few years and doing the sensible thing by transferring all important data to an external hard drive for safe keeping

Had three hard drives in a pc that built 3 years ago system was:-

Specs

Windows xp service pack 2 with office 2000

1 x 200gb hard drive with partition of 30gb for the C:\ and 170gb as E:\

1 x 300gb Hard drive as music drive F:\

1 x 40gb Hard drive for odds and sods

2gb ram

Gigabyte MB with 3.4ghz processor.


Also have an external usb 200gb hard drive, which I have been using for the last few years to back up the “more important data”

Last week power surge through house “could have been my pc power supply failed” tripped main fuse in house, pc not working and located problem as the pc power unit.

Once replaced could not start windows at all so had to do a clean re-install, did this by changing the drives around a bit as at the time as assumed all important data was backed up on the external drive!



System now: -

1 x 40gb as the main c:\

1 terabyte storage over 3 drives + 200gb external drive

Rest as above



The previous partitioned 200gb drive was formatted and now used as a slave drive. (Darn it!!!!!)



What I did a while back was this,

On the external hard drive I went to my folder then into the properties settings and used the “Read Only/Hidden function/do not share function as well but don’t remember playing with Security tab??.

At the Time was happy with what had did as could not open any of my info on any other pc’s which meant if got stolen no-one could access my info.

Now I can’t even get at it as on opening I get five blue bars in along the bottom then it states that: -

“gps presentation.ppt is invalid. Please check that the path and the file name are correct”. Even though the entire file size can be seen within the folder and its not a shortcut????



From what been reading think it may have something to do with the Encrypting File System in Windows XP and Windows?


See, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457065.aspx


Sorry for the long dialog but desperate to rectify whatever way possible



Derek