Recovered Encrypted Files

[Bull]

I recently had a catastrophic hard drive failure. I managed to
recover most of my files using recovery programs and transfer them to
a new hard drive. The problem I am having now is that the files I had
encrypted are not recognized by Windows XP.

I still have the public and private encryption keys, so the encryption
itself is not the issue. The problem is the files appear as
unencrypted files with the extension .$efs. (ie: document.doc.$efs).
These files are not green like encrypted files typically are, but
otherwise appear as regular files that cannot be opened.

Any way to get Windows to figure out that these are encrypted?

Thanks
Chris

 

[CS]

I recently had a catastrophic hard drive failure. I managed to
recover most of my files using recovery programs and transfer them to
a new hard drive. The problem I am having now is that the files I had
encrypted are not recognized by Windows XP.

I still have the public and private encryption keys, so the encryption
itself is not the issue. The problem is the files appear as
unencrypted files with the extension .$efs. (ie: document.doc.$efs).
These files are not green like encrypted files typically are, but
otherwise appear as regular files that cannot be opened.

Any way to get Windows to figure out that these are encrypted?

Thanks
Chris

You may have to take ownership of the files first. Also, for whatever
reason, it appears they've lost the EFS attribute which may turn out
to be a problem. The recovery program may have stripped the
attributes.

Try to take ownership first, then use your keys to open the files. If
that doesn't work, your data may be lost.

 

[Russell]

Found this KB article about moving encrypted files to
another computer.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...ced/help/encrypt_to_restore_diff_computer.htm

In it you will see menitioned about restoring to a NFTS
volume. By any chance have you restored to a FAT32 volume?

 

[NobodyMan]

I recently had a catastrophic hard drive failure. I managed to
recover most of my files using recovery programs and transfer them to
a new hard drive. The problem I am having now is that the files I had
encrypted are not recognized by Windows XP.

I still have the public and private encryption keys, so the encryption
itself is not the issue. The problem is the files appear as
unencrypted files with the extension .$efs. (ie: document.doc.$efs).
These files are not green like encrypted files typically are, but
otherwise appear as regular files that cannot be opened.

Any way to get Windows to figure out that these are encrypted?

Thanks
Chris

Herein, once again, lies a problem with encryption. Why does the
average home user bother with it? What State-Level secrets are you
protecting on your computer? Is your password really secure enough to
protect the data, since anybody logging into your account can access
your encrypted files (well, not right now, but you get the point)?

98 percent of home users who decide to encrypt their personal files
have no need to, and are flirting with disaster.

 

[Bull]

No, the files were restored to an NTFS drive, and I have appropriate
ownership of the files. There must be some way that WinXP recognises
encrypted files as such. I guess what I need is a way to remind it.

 

[Bull]

Who said I was an average home user? Actually, the reason I encrypt
some folders is because I am a government employee who works in a
federal penitentiary. My house was broken into last year, and although
my computers were not stolen, the harm that could follow from having a
criminal in possession of some files (contact lists, union stuff,
personal information, etc) would be far greater than losing them.

But hey, thanks for your help.

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

The encrypted file has an additional attribute (in its MFT record) which
keeps the file encryption key, encrypted with your master key (and also with
a recovery key). If the file key is lost during recovery, then the data is
lost, even though you have your recovery key. You need a program which can
restore original MFT record on the original disk.