NTFS Compression & Encryption

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

I have WinXP Pro installed on drive C which is FAT32. I
converted drive D to NTFS, then I compressed half the
contents and I encrypted some files and folders.

I was wondering what could happen to my data on drive D
in case drive C was completely lost and I had to install
a fresh copy of WinXP on drive C.

This computer is on a workgroup and I know how to get
ownership of normal NTFS files and folders, but can I do
the same for compressed and encrypted files? Will I lose
them?

Thanks.
 
Compressed files should be no problem.
But you will lose all encrypted files, so save them early !
 
Greetings --

If the your encryption certificates and keys are not backed up
before the reinstallation, and the workstation isn't part of a domain,
those encrypted files will be gone, for all practical purposes.
Encryption works well and there is no "back door" or hack to access
the files. (Wouldn't be much point to EFS if it were vulnerable.)

Best Practices for Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223316

Bruce Chambers

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John said:
I have WinXP Pro installed on drive C which is FAT32. I
converted drive D to NTFS, then I compressed half the
contents and I encrypted some files and folders.

I was wondering what could happen to my data on drive D
in case drive C was completely lost and I had to install
a fresh copy of WinXP on drive C.
Click to expand...


You *MUST* immediately make a backup of the 'encryption certificates',
off the machine so you could restore them. Without those (on C) your
encrypted files would be irretrievable. See Help and support - search
on "certificate" and look in particular at the topic 'Backup default
recovery keys. . .'
 
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