Decryption

[James]

I have an image of windows xp on my d:\ which I recently cloned onto the
c:\. Now encrypted files on my e:\ will not decrypt. As the instalation of
windows is the same should not i be able to decrypt these files.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

If the clone was done at a point in time after the files were encrypted it
should normally work and you can use the mmc snapin for user certificate
while logged on as the user that encrypted the files to see if you have an
EFS certificate and private key. Make sure that you are logged on as the
user that encrypted those files and that you have full control NTFS
permissions to them. Also make sure you are using the same password to logon
to that user account that was used when the files were encrypted. ---
Steve

 

[Vanguard]

I have an image of windows xp on my d:\ which I recently cloned onto
the
c:\. Now encrypted files on my e:\ will not decrypt. As the
instalation of
windows is the same should not i be able to decrypt these files.

Apparently you saved the partition image for C: onto D: sometime BEFORE
you encrypted files. This means the EFS certificate had not yet been
created. It gets created the first time you decide to encrypt files.
Since the image of C: did not have the EFS certificate, restoring it
atop of C: which did have the EFS certificate destroyed that certificate
so it is no longer available to decrypt the EFS-protected files that are
on E:. If you did not export the certificate, you no longer have it to
decrypt those files.

Did you create the EFS certificate before or after you save the
partition image (for C?

 

[James]

Unfortunately the partion was saved before encrypting the files. Then
restored after encrypting the files.

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

I have an image of windows xp on my d:\ which I recently cloned onto the
c:\. Now encrypted files on my e:\ will not decrypt. As the instalation of
windows is the same should not i be able to decrypt these files.

The makers of aefsdr claim it can decrypt EFS encrypted files, I
haven't used it but at this point you really have nothing to lose, it
has a limited 30 day trial version.

http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html

 

[Vanguard]

Unfortunately the partion was saved before encrypting the files. Then
restored after encrypting the files.

The files are lost if you did not export the EFS certificate. Googling
on "+EFS +recovery" turns up some possibilities, like
http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/index.php (but I
haven't tried their procedure).