EFS problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rick S. Martin
  • Start date Start date
R

Rick S. Martin

Hiya all

A friend of mine encrypted a folder full of photos under win XP on a
non-system disk.
It was an older computer, so she had recently sold it to a friend, the
data drive she kept for herself.

The data hard drive is now used as an external drive and she cant
access the photos folder photos!

Is there a way to get those photos back? I mean, some software or any
professional service perhaps?

I ran a search, but came out empty handed...

rick
 
Rick said:
Hiya all

A friend of mine encrypted a folder full of photos under win XP on a
non-system disk.
It was an older computer, so she had recently sold it to a friend, the
data drive she kept for herself.

The data hard drive is now used as an external drive and she cant
access the photos folder photos!

Is there a way to get those photos back? I mean, some software or any
professional service perhaps?

I ran a search, but came out empty handed...
Click to expand...

If she really, really encrypted the data and didn't back up her
encryption key or set a recovery agent, the data is inaccessible and
for all intents and purposes gone.

If she didn't really use EFS then she just needs to take ownership of
the files:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/encrypt.htm - encryption info
http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/ - more encryption
info

Malke
 
Rick said:
Hiya all

A friend of mine encrypted a folder full of photos under win XP on a
non-system disk.
It was an older computer, so she had recently sold it to a friend, the
data drive she kept for herself.

The data hard drive is now used as an external drive and she cant
access the photos folder photos!

Is there a way to get those photos back? I mean, some software or any
professional service perhaps?

I ran a search, but came out empty handed...

rick
Click to expand...

If the person who know owns the old computer hasn't formatted the hard drive
she may be able to recover the files. She would have to connect the external
drive to the old computer, logon to the computer with her old username and
password, decrypt the files or save a copy in an unencrypted format. If that
isn't possible the files are gone.
 
Rick said:
A friend of mine encrypted a folder full of photos under win XP on a
non-system disk.
It was an older computer, so she had recently sold it to a friend,
the data drive she kept for herself.

The data hard drive is now used as an external drive and she cant
access the photos folder photos!

Is there a way to get those photos back? I mean, some software or
any professional service perhaps?

I ran a search, but came out empty handed...
Click to expand...

If she actually used EFS (and followed the best practices for said use) -
then she can use her backed up certificate/key to recover access to the
files.

If she did not - and the friend/her has not formatted the old system and the
user account she encrypted the data with still exists (unchanged) on the
original system - she can hook the drive to it and decrypt.

Otherwise... No.

Best practices for the Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223316/

How to back up the recovery agent Encrypting File System (EFS) private key
in Windows Server 2003, in Windows 2000, and in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241201

Using Efsinfo.exe to determine information about encrypted files
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243026/
 
Shenan Stanley said:
If she actually used EFS (and followed the best practices for said use) -
then she can use her backed up certificate/key to recover access to the
files.

If she did not - and the friend/her has not formatted the old system and the
user account she encrypted the data with still exists (unchanged) on the
original system - she can hook the drive to it and decrypt.

Otherwise... No.
Click to expand...

Well, she has no key, I think she didn't even know she needed one.

OK, thank you for your replies.

<snip links>

Thank you for the links.

rick
 
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