efs file - access denied

[Guest]

I've read the other posts about how people have lost access to files because
they are encrypted and get "access denied". I get this as well. Why or when
it started I'm not sure. It wasn't after drive corruption or anything like
that. Possibly I put a new password on the administrator account. Although I
didn't back up the encryption key I don't see why its corrupted or missing.
When i look at an efs file properties and go to deselect "encrypt contents to
secure data" I get "Access Denied" Then I go to details and under "Users who
can transparantly access this file" it list the administrator user that I'm
logged in under. It shows a "Certificate Thumbprint" number for the
administrator user - a long series of alphanumerics. When i click on "add"
and "view certificate" it lists the certificate details and also at the
bottom of the tab says " You have a private key that corresponds to this
certificate " In the "Certification Path" tab it says " This certificate is
OK " So all appears OK. I'm guessing that I actually may have the correct
certificate. Can I somehow reapply it to the encrypted files.
I've tried the utility from http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html and it
couldn't decrypt the files.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I've read the other posts about how people have lost access to
files because they are encrypted and get "access denied". I get
this as well. Why or when it started I'm not sure. It wasn't after
drive corruption or anything like that. Possibly I put a new
password on the administrator account. Although I didn't back up
the encryption key I don't see why its corrupted or missing. When i
look at an efs file properties and go to deselect "encrypt contents
to secure data" I get "Access Denied" Then I go to details and
under "Users who can transparantly access this file" it list the
administrator user that I'm logged in under. It shows a
"Certificate Thumbprint" number for the administrator user - a long
series of alphanumerics. When i click on "add" and "view
certificate" it lists the certificate details and also at the
bottom of the tab says " You have a private key that corresponds to
this certificate " In the "Certification Path" tab it says " This
certificate is OK " So all appears OK. I'm guessing that I actually
may have the correct certificate. Can I somehow reapply it to the
encrypted files.
I've tried the utility from http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html
and it couldn't decrypt the files.

EFS does not give you the "access denied" message. Not in the way you are
inferring here.

Do you OWN the file?
How did you *possibly put in a new password*?
(By that - I mean the method.)

How to Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

How to disable simplified sharing & set permissions
on a shared folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874

Read carefully - don't just jump into the steps.