need help with encrypted files...

[Guest]

I had installed xp 64 on an extra fourty gig hd i had, and halfway through
install, it froze up and would just stay at 34 minutes left. I could find no
way around it, i couldnt even repair with regular xp after that. So i Got a
clean 120 gig hd, installed xp pro on it, and put the hd with the failed
install in as the primary slave, or my drive d. I had been storing media
files on it for about a month, as well as some crucial documents that i had
set to hidden and encrypted so they would not show up on file search
resaults. Now all of a sudden it wont let me access the encryped hidden files
on drive d, but i can get at everything else. An error message comes up
saying access denied when you try to open them. I had heard that micrsoft
uses certificates for each installation of windows to grant access to
encrypted files, wouldit do this on the hard drive bases, or the install you
are running? the files are from an old install that i copied over to the
extra drive a few years back, so that copy of windows is long gone. are the
files unopenable forever?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

The certificate/private key used for EFS is tied to the operating system -
not the hard drive. It is stored in the user profile for the user that
encrypted the files. If you still have that user profile on one of your hard
drives then you may be able to access your EFS files but not by normal
means. There is a program from Elcomsoft that will search your hard drive
for EFS private keys and if you can enter the password for the user account
you still may be able to access your files. The free version can do that but
only the $100 version can recover whole files.

Steve

http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html --- EFS recovery program
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223316/ --- EFS best practices including
how to backup your EFS private key