recovering encrypted files

[Craig Treloar]

Several files on my hdd were encrypted and after a major
hdd failure and completely new rebuild of Win Xp I now
cannot open the encrypted files. Any suggestions? I have
little knowledge of group policies & recovery agents.
Thanks.

 

[Roger Abell]

Any recovery agent useful now for those files would
have been defined before the files were touched last.
If you formatted in the reinstall, and did not first save
the EFS cert/key of the encrypting account, and you
were not in an uplevel domain, and you have no ability
to resurrect the old system to bootability using backups,
then your files are forever gone.

 

[David]

? I have
little knowledge of group policies & recovery agents.
Thanks.

Then yoou shouldn't be messing around witj encryption!

EFS is doing it's job. Which is to keep un-authorized users from
accessing the encrytped files.

When you re-installed XP, without first creating a recovery key and
exporting it. you lost your access.You no longer are an authorized user.

If EFS were easy to crack. What good would it be?

You should make sure you know what you are doing, How things work, and
how to protect yourself in case something goes wrong BEFORE messing
around with something design to make things secure.

--

David

"Due to Viewer dicretion...
Graphic violence is advised"

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Craig;
Are you sure it is not an Ownership issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

If the files are encrypted.
If you did not back-up the encryption key or the Recovery Agent and
are not on a domain, the files are as good as gone.
This must be accomplished while you have access to the files.
If you have not already done so, it is now to late.

If you can restore the original profile (not recreate) and know the
password, you may be able to recover the data.
Recreating profiles and passwords is irrelevant.
Contact Microsoft if you can restore the profile.
Or:
http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/index.php

EFS is very good at what it does and there is no back door.
Read and understand these links before using EFS to keep from
permanently losing your data:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/techinfo/administration/recovery/default.asp
(58 pages)
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=223316