Help, I've encrypted my files and I can't get up...

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Guest

I am using XP with Office 2003. I posted my question to the Word Discussion
Group and Office Discussion Group and was advised to post here for better
results. Here is my question/problem:

On my C drive, I changed the "Properties" of a few Excel and Word documents
to "Encrypt Data to Secure Contents" by right clicking on the desired file,
selecting properties, selecting advanced, selecting encrypt data to secure
contents. I copied those files from my C drive to an external NTFS formatted
drive. Shortly thereafter, my CPU hard drive crashed. I got a new
computer, connected the same external drive to the new machine and tried to
open those encrypted files, but cannot. The message I receive when
attempting to open the files is "Excel (or Word) cannot open (name of file
here). The document may be read only or encrypted." I cannot change the
file properties to remove the encryption. Are my files lost forever?
 
Please see EFS and Managing Certificates in Windows Help and Support.
But it sounds to me like you did not make provisions to recover these
files.
 
Check out the instructions on using encrypted files. It sounds like you
didn't make the recover disk for them. By moving them to a different
machine all their internal numbering schemes were replaced.

To date I haven't yet heard of anyone manageing to recover such files. You
should assume they're gone forever unless you're a real tekkie at these
things, which you aren't or you wouldn't have asked here ;-).

MS makes it way too easy to use encryption in my opinion.

HTH
Pop`
 
Mel said:
I am using XP with Office 2003. I posted my question to the Word
Discussion
Group and Office Discussion Group and was advised to post here for better
results. Here is my question/problem:

On my C drive, I changed the "Properties" of a few Excel and Word
documents
to "Encrypt Data to Secure Contents" by right clicking on the desired
file,
selecting properties, selecting advanced, selecting encrypt data to secure
contents. I copied those files from my C drive to an external NTFS
formatted
drive. Shortly thereafter, my CPU hard drive crashed. I got a new
computer, connected the same external drive to the new machine and tried
to
open those encrypted files, but cannot. The message I receive when
attempting to open the files is "Excel (or Word) cannot open (name of file
here). The document may be read only or encrypted." I cannot change the
file properties to remove the encryption. Are my files lost forever?
Click to expand...

Did you backup the recovery certificate and designate a recovery agent? If
not, then unfortunately the files are lost. See these links for more info
on EFS in case you ever decide to use it again, though I recommend against
that.

How To Encrypt a Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308989

How To Remove File Encryption in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308993

How To Encrypt a File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307877

HOW TO: Share Access to an Encrypted File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308991

Best practices for the Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=223316

How to add an EFS recovery agent in Windows XP Professional
http://support.microsoft.com

How to back up the recovery agent Encrypting File System (EFS) private key
in Windows Server 2003, in Windows 2000, and in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=241201
 
Mel said:
I am using XP with Office 2003. I posted my question to the Word
Discussion
Group and Office Discussion Group and was advised to post here for better
results. Here is my question/problem:

On my C drive, I changed the "Properties" of a few Excel and Word
documents
to "Encrypt Data to Secure Contents" by right clicking on the desired
file,
selecting properties, selecting advanced, selecting encrypt data to secure
contents. I copied those files from my C drive to an external NTFS
formatted
drive. Shortly thereafter, my CPU hard drive crashed. I got a new
computer, connected the same external drive to the new machine and tried
to
open those encrypted files, but cannot. The message I receive when
attempting to open the files is "Excel (or Word) cannot open (name of file
here). The document may be read only or encrypted." I cannot change the
file properties to remove the encryption. Are my files lost forever?
Click to expand...

Additionally Mel, you could look at TrueCrypt instead of using EFS in XP.
http://www.truecrypt.org/
 
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