Decryption of encrypted data - Urgent

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tahir
  • Start date Start date
T

Tahir

Hello,

I have encountered a problem & need solution. Although I
have gone through all related FAQs available online yet
could not find any solution. My problem is:

1. I use XP-Pro on my home PC (single user)
2. Hard Disk is NTFS, once on drive D (not system
drive) I encrypted a folder which also contained sub
folders & various files.
3. Later on I created another user account (admn) and
deleted the previous one.
4. Now from this newly created account I can only see
the contents of that encrypted folder but whenever I try
to run/copy/move the files of same folder 'access denied'
message is shown. If I try to change the properties
again 'access denied' message is shown. When I open
advance attribute menue in 'user who can transparently
access this file/folder', 'user account' which I deleted
earlier is given alongwith certificate thumprint, but I
cannot add in there another 'user account' who can access
and not even delete the already mentioned one, however
field under this 'data recovery agent for this file' is
blank.

I hope I have explained my problem in detail. Kindly
advise me how can I decrypt the data since the data is
very important.

Thanks & regards.

Tahir
 
If you deleted the earlier account that encrypted the
files with EFS, you broke access to the EFS files.
This is of course by design, as EFS is supposed to
keep content private to the encrypting account.

Did you export the certificate and key from the old
account ? If so, you only need to import these into
the new account, assuming you remember the password
on the export file.

Otherwise, since you probably do not have a domain,
and you likely did not configure a data recovery agent,
then you have one chance. If the profile of the old account
still intact or restorable, and do you remember what was
its password ? If so you may be able to get the EFS files
back in unencrypted from.
 
Thanks indeed Roger
I dont remember whether I had exported the certificate
and key from the old account, supposing I did so, how can
I know that.
I remember the password but I am not sure if the profile
of the old account is still intact or restorable.
Regards,
Tahir
 
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