Recovery of files

[Guest]

A PC running XP began to experience boot problems. It would load almost to
the password screen, then reboot over and over. Will not go into safe mode,
either.

Was going to try to repair the installation using the windows CD, except
there isn't one. Its an eMachine with a full factory recovery CD, but of
course the windows installation software is not with the system, its just an
image which isn't usable for repair.

I pulled the Maxtor harddisk out, and made a clone of it on to a spare drive
using the Maxtor disk utilities for backup, then restored the eMachine
factory recovery. The machine now works and I inserted the backup drive as a
slave to copy some files over. However, some files appear to have been
encrypted and won't copy over. We have the UserID and PW that was used to
encrypt them but it never asks for them. How do you get these files back?

 

[Malke]

A PC running XP began to experience boot problems. It would load almost
to
the password screen, then reboot over and over. Will not go into safe
mode, either.

Was going to try to repair the installation using the windows CD, except
there isn't one. Its an eMachine with a full factory recovery CD, but of
course the windows installation software is not with the system, its just
an image which isn't usable for repair.

I pulled the Maxtor harddisk out, and made a clone of it on to a spare
drive using the Maxtor disk utilities for backup, then restored the
eMachine
factory recovery. The machine now works and I inserted the backup drive
as a
slave to copy some files over. However, some files appear to have been
encrypted and won't copy over. We have the UserID and PW that was used to
encrypt them but it never asks for them. How do you get these files back?

Are you really really sure that actual encryption was used? If you have XP
Home, then encryption isn't available.

It is more likely that you just need to take ownership of the files.

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties? -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_security_tab.htm

If you have XP Pro and the files really were encrypted with EFS, see:

http://tinyurl.com/6l6xx - MS information about EFS (Encryption)
http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html - Encrypted files retrieval application
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/encrypt.htm - encryption info
http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/ - more encryption info

Malke