File encryption recovery

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob Gale
  • Start date Start date
R

Rob Gale

My laptop crashed and I moved my hard drive to another
laptop. I had an encrypted file (using Windows Explorer).
Now I can't open the file on my new computer. How do I
recover the file when my original computer/installation
is gone? Can I create the same account/password on my new
computer or something?
 
Hi Rob,

if you don't have some sort of backup of you private key with which you
encrypted the file, you won't be able to regain access to your encrypted
file. Even creating same user account with same password won't help.

Your private key was stored in your old profile. If you can't access this
profile, restore it or if you haven't exported it or created data recovery
agent, then you lost access to your file for good.

To prevent this kind of accidents in the future I recommend this reading:
Best practices for the Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223316&Product=winxp

Mike
 
There is not way to recover unless your machine was in a domain (in which
case you can go to the Data Recovery Agent to decrypt your file) or you have
backed up your keys&certs from previous installation. Keys and certs are
stored under the user profile and they can be exported/imported from one
installation to another as a PFX file.
For more info on EFS best practices and data recovery see:
http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q223/3/16.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/cryptfs.mspx
 
Q: How do I recover the file when my original computer/installation
is gone?
A: Insert diskette containing the profile's or designated recovery
agent certificate. Import certificate into new profile. Decrypt
file.
 
Rob said:
My laptop crashed and I moved my hard drive to another
laptop. I had an encrypted file (using Windows Explorer).
Now I can't open the file on my new computer. How do I
recover the file when my original computer/installation
is gone? Can I create the same account/password on my new
computer or something?
Click to expand...
Hi

If you have access to the user profile folders on the old install for
the user that encrypted the files and if you remember the password for
the user that encrypted the data, you might be able to save the files.
Take a look at this site for more details:

http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/
 
Back
Top