My Private Folder

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Guest

I installed My Private Folder to store legal documents and used it without
any problems. Yesterday when I went to open the folder, instead of being
asked for a password, it offered up the steps to create a new folder. It
won't let me create a new folder and I can't access the old folder. If I
clisk a file in the folder, it won't open. I'm rather desparate. Is there any
way to unencrypt the files or somehow fix My Private Folder access?
 
I installed My Private Folder to store legal documents and used it without
any problems. Yesterday when I went to open the folder, instead of being
asked for a password, it offered up the steps to create a new folder. It
won't let me create a new folder and I can't access the old folder. If I
clisk a file in the folder, it won't open. I'm rather desparate. Is there
any
way to unencrypt the files or somehow fix My Private Folder access?
Click to expand...

Sorry I don't know of any. Microsoft stopped offering this utility back in
July because of some problems with it. The reason they gave was that people
were forgetting their password, and without it they couldn't get into their
files. Sounds kind of odd to pull a utility because it was doing what it
was supposed to do. Whether there were other reasons, such as yours, for
pulling it, I don't know.
 
I fixed my own problem, but just in case anyone is interested. I had
installed the beta version of AVG 7.5, and after uninstalling it, My Private
Folder is now available. Heads up.
 
You best make unencrypted backup of these files and store them in a
secure place. There is NO recovery mechanism for files lost or locked
with this utility! While one might think that this would make the
utility useful think again! One person with a tiny grudge and a tiny
program can wreak havoc on corporate data! Or persons with tiny memory
can lose all their precious personal data! The secretary meets an
untimely death and the company can't retrieve the data that she locked!
Or software glitches happen and there goes the data. Security and
data recovery experts had sounded the alarm on this program and
Microsoft silently pulled it. Having strong protection and data
encryption doesn't mean that the data should be unrecoverable.

John
 
I fixed my own problem, but just in case anyone is interested. I had
installed the beta version of AVG 7.5, and after uninstalling it, My
Private
Folder is now available. Heads up.
Click to expand...

That's great to hear. I'm sure you're relieved. One thing to say though,
your original post implied you don't have a backup of these important files.
If that is the case I have to ask why not? You should always, always have a
full and complete backup of important data, on external media and for
critical information it should be on two different media types, one stored
off site. I would make sure the backup copies are not encrypted. Data loss
is inevitable with computers. You have to plan for it.
 
I fixed my own problem, but just in case anyone is interested. I
had installed the beta version of AVG 7.5, and after uninstalling
it, My Private Folder is now available. Heads up.
Click to expand...

Apparently, others have had problems with this application (see
"Microsoft Kills Off 'My Private Folder' App"
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1989425,00.asp>

If you want a good, free, rock-solid application with good
cryptographic lineage for securing data, try "Truecrypt"
<http://www.truecrypt.org>

HTH,
John
 
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