It's always a good idea to configure recovery agents before allowing
EFS. If you haven't assigned any recovery agents, the Administrator
will be the recovery agent. In a domain, the domain admin is the
recovery agent. In a stand alone (or workgroup), the local Admin will
the the agent.
If you're working on a stand alone or (workgroup) computer, just log
on as Admin and then you'll be able to decrypt the files on your
drive.
In a domain, the domain admin has to decrypt the file using his own
computer (where his certificate is stored). The file has to be backed
up (from another computer or a file server) and restored to the domain
admin's computer.
Basically, the administrator (standalone or domain) holds a special
recovery certificate. The recovery must be done on the computer where
the recovery certificate is stored.
And if you use roaming profiles, the above doesn't always apply! And
if the above doesn't work, there *may* be other methods. I don't want
to make this too long, so post back if you have problems.
Good Luck,
Howard
