User Recovery after reinstalling Windows on new drive

[Guest]

I reinstalled windows to a larger hardrive after getting a new motherboard,
and I have the old version of windows still accessible on the older hard
drive. I had a username (before the reinstall) with files encrypted in the
"Documents and Settings " directory, and now I can't access them because I
dont have the option of logging on to that user name.

I can still see the directory under C:\Documents and Settings\

But windows is on my D:\ Drive and so it has a separate "Documents and
Settings" directory.


My Question:
How can I allow windows to find the old username information and allow me to
log onto it?

 

[Guest]

Hi Chris,

I would like to inform you that if you had encrypted files in the old user
and you are unable to login to it in that case it may not be possible to
recover the same.

Only the user who encrypts a file can recover data that has been encrypted,
unless the user specifies a recovery agent before they encrypted the files.

Note : To make sure that you have the ability to decrypt files in the
future, you should always export your certificate and private key and keep
them in a safe place.

You may visit the given weblink :
How To Remove File Encryption in Windows XP :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308993

You may still be able to recover the unencrypted files using :

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP :
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Regards,

Jitesh Biswas

http://jiteshbiswas.tripod.com

 

[Guest]

I am aware that only the user who encrypts the files can access them, and
that is why I'm so frustrated -- I am the user!

What about this: I take the original hard drive with windows still
installed on it, put it into an old computer as the primary disk (this
computer also had windows xp on it) and boot the old version of windows on
that machine. This way that username is part of the operating system, and I
can log in and move all my files over...

 

[cuba]

You will probably have to load the older installation of Windows and
copy the file un-encrypted. Then load the new Windows and re-encrypt
them. It is not surprising that Windows would do this, as the
encryption keys were probably "left behind" somewhere inside the old
Windows.