recovering protected files

[Curits]

My windows install recently crashed and I can't seem to
get it back. I'm preparing for a reinstall and attempting
to copy my files onto a friends computer. He has my hard
drive set as a slave in his pc. We have managed to copy
some files but we can't get the My Documents folder
because I have a password on my windows account so we get
a message saying that we don't have access to those
files. Is there any way I can recover these files?

 

[Robb]

Hallo Curtis,

have you solved the problem?, ... I reinstalled my Win XP
after it corrupted and all encrypted data can't be opened
(I can see the files and folders - green color), of
course I had not backed up a private key of privious
installation so I can't recover all the data a standard
way,

let me know please if you will know something new,

thanks a lot in advance,
Rob


p.s. look at this ...


How to Remove Encryption from a File
Only the following people can decrypt an encrypted file.

The user who encrypted the file
Any user who was designated as a recovery agent before
the file was encrypted
Any user who has the public key or private key for the
recovery agent or the user that originally encrypted the
file
Any user who has been granted access to the file

 

[Robb]

OK try this for EFS recovery:

EFS recovery prog. - http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html
(there is 30d trial version for download)
or
Microsoft has a file for it reccerts.exe,

it looks good, I'm going to try it ...,
let me know anything new,

Rob

 

[Dave]

Rob/Curtis,

Did you manage to get anything? My problem is similar. My
XP system crashed and I did a new installation on a new
disk. Put the crashed drive as a slave and can copy
everything over except my own "My Documents" folders
(which I'd made private) - and thats the bit I really
need....

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

HOW TO Take Ownership of a File or Folder in WinXP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q308421

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


My windows install recently crashed and I can't seem to
get it back. I'm preparing for a reinstall and attempting
to copy my files onto a friends computer. He has my hard
drive set as a slave in his pc. We have managed to copy
some files but we can't get the My Documents folder
because I have a password on my windows account so we get
a message saying that we don't have access to those
files. Is there any way I can recover these files?

 

[Robb]

OK KO ...

I tried almost everything:

none of the available programs can help you if you can't
recover your previous installation of Windows in case it
was deleted or formatted.

My problem was, when my Win XP crashed and there was no
way to repair it becasue of damaged registry I decided to
make a new installation without exporting a private key
first for ntfs encrypted files,
The another problem is that I made a new installation on
the same disk where was the previous and this
consequently caused that some files were overwritten and
it simply means there's no way to recover it,
I used NTFS R-Studio2 and Ontrack recovery Professional
to recover almost 800 MB of privious installation but
with no success,

all of my encrypted files was not in My documents folder,

Private key for encrypted files is stored in My documents
folder so if you have an access to this folder and there
is everything like it was when windows was running you
can use advanced EFS recovery to search for Private Keys
first, than to search for encrypted files and matched
them together, you will see 3 windows in program, it's
very easy process with that program:

1. encrypted files
2. decrypted files
3. files which can't be decrypted

decrypted files than you can copy to some safe disk,

if you have no key no data can be retrieved !!, and I can
repeat it againg NO kEY - NO dATA

there is chance to use some cracking program using brute
force maybe with some mask to break the cipher,
but it's 128 bit long and that's no fun,

however I have heard that there are some companies which
are able to do it in short time, but I am not sure about
the price,

I appreciate any other suggestion which I may missed,
I repeat I have no key to decrypt my files and it can't
be recovered becase they were overwritten with new
installation, all encrypted files weren't stored in My
documents folder

does anybody know some program, free to download .. with
a good algorithm to break 128 EFS cipher?,

thanx
Robb

 

[Robb]

Even allowing for machine speed to double yearly, it
could take millions of years to crack a 128-bit key-
essentially

 

[Robb]

Seeing that a proven cipher of around 128 bits is plenty
secure, we're happy to report that Microsoft has built
more than enough protection into Windows XP Pro, in the
form of the Encrypting File System (EFS). In Windows XP,
the default is Triple DES. And with XP SP-1, the default
is 256-bit AES, which is likely to keep your data safe
through the next few ice ages.

Thanx BILL,
It's for a first time I have to thank you since you made
DOS, you did a great job, almost 2 GB of my personal data
are gone forever, ... because of no warning before
encrypting data, no info about exporting a privat key or
setting up an agent, lucky me ... month ago I had
installed XP SP 1 and other security patches, whoops and
there it is 256-bit AES cipher maybe my children will be
able to view those files ...

isn't it really interesting:

how it's easy to change fat32 file system to ntfs, just
type convert into cmd and here it is you're running on
ntfs file system, faster and more reliable, but when you
want to go back, ... OK buy some stuff like Partition
Magic and if you want to decrypt your own files withou
backed up key, sorry we can't help you, now I can say EFS
encrypting with Win XP Pro is really reliable

 

[Curtis]

Ok I've solved my problem. If you can get a copy of Win
2000 you can boot off of that cd and enter the recovery
console. You can then view and move files as you wish but
you have to do them one at a time. You can't copy
directories or do wildcard copies. It can take a long
time but it does work.

 

[Drew Cooper [MSFT]]

If you know your old password from the crashed installation and you have
XPSP1 as your new installation, MS Product Support should be able to help
you recover your data.