Problem with EFS

[Guest]

Aloha Folks,

I recently ran a sysprep on my workstation to change my workstation's name
and I also changed my domain logon password. Afterwards, I was unable to
access my EFS encrypted folder. I ran through the KB and tried to create a
Recovery Agent as the local administrator but to no avail. I get an "Access
denied" error message when I try to decrypt as local administrator. I get the
same error if I try as my personal logon. I tried to use the backup app to
backup and then restore the file to see if I could recover it then. No luck.
Does anybody here have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Very Respectfully,
Chris

 

[Steven L Umbach]

The article in the KB link is for Windows 2000 but also applies to XP Pro.
Since your computer's and users' SIDs changed your EFS private key will no
longer work and to avoid such a problem you need to backup your EFS private
key before you use sysprep which it sounds like you did not do. What I would
do is to try the free version of software from ElcomSoft to see if it can
find and access your EFS private key after you input the password used for
your user account associated with the private key. If it can then you may
want to buy the full version for $99 to try and recover your files. The
free version will only recover EFS small files but will show if the program
can work or not for you. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=288348
http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html --- ElcomSoft

 

[Guest]

Aloha Steven,

You are quite sharp in your perception of my problem. I can tell you are a
real tech guru and I appreciate the pointer to the EFS recovery software. You
have my sincerest thanks and respect. Take care.

Very Respectfully,
Chris Elmore

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Thanks for the compliment. I am just a guy trying to help others where I can
as others have helped me. --- Steve

 

[Guest]

Hi Steven

I used the free SW ...most of the files is not-decryptable for my case. What
shd I do next ?