Before you encrypt anything important, you should back up your
personal encryption certificate (with its associated private key)
and the recovery agent certificate to a floppy disk and store it in
a secure location. If you ever lose your original certificate
(because of a hard disk failure, for example), you can restore
the backup copy and regain access to your files. If you lose all
copies of your certificate (and no recovery agent certificates exist),
you won't be able to use your encrypted files. No back door exists,
nor is there any practical way to hack these files.
(If there were, it wouldn't be very good encryption.)
HOW TO: Remove File Encryption in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;308993
Without a backup of the original Encryption Certificate Key, encrypted files
are unrecoverable as they will stay encrypted forever. There is no recovery
method since the encryption algorithm is now completely different with a
reinstall of Windows XP.
See if the following articles help in any way:
HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421
Best Practices for the Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223316
Encrypting File System in Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prod
technol/winxppro/deploy/CryptFS.asp
EFS Files Appear Corrupted When You Open Them
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329741
--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
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| I have NTFS partitions and used encryption on some folders.
| But later I had to reinstall Windows XP. I recreated my
| account with the same name and password as before.
| But now i can't access the files which had been encrypted.
| Question: What can I do to decrypt those files?
| Please send suggestions to: (e-mail address removed)
| Thank you!
