Encryption

[Guest]

I just reformated and i backed up to my hard drive. My files were encrypted
under my old accounts user certificate so i dont have access to them.
How do i erase the encryption?
P.S the cipher command doesn't work...

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

HOW TO: Remove File Encryption in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/d­efault.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;3089­93

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

EFS Files Appear Corrupted When You Open Them
http://support.microsoft.com/d­efault.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;3297­41

Decrypt Encrypted files on Windows XP
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/windowsxp/articles/456/1/Decrypt-Encrypted-files-on-Windows-XP

Windows Encrypted File System (EFS)
http://leoville.tv/radio/pmwiki.php/Main/WindowsEncryptedFileSystem

Advanced EFS Data Recovery
http://download2pc.com/9/107/Advanced-EFS-Data-Recovery-4842.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

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:

| I just reformated and i backed up to my hard drive. My files were encrypted
| under my old accounts user certificate so i dont have access to them.
| How do i erase the encryption?
| P.S the cipher command doesn't work...

 

[Malke]

I just reformated and i backed up to my hard drive. My files were
encrypted under my old accounts user certificate so i dont have access
to them. How do i erase the encryption?
P.S the cipher command doesn't work...

If you did not back up your keys onto removable media, you are out of
luck. You cannot "erase" the encryption. Here is information about XP's
encryption to help you:

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
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/private.htm - making stuff private

Malke

 

[Vanguard_NPI]

I just reformated and i backed up to my hard drive. My files were encrypted
under my old accounts user certificate so i dont have access to them.
How do i erase the encryption?
P.S the cipher command doesn't work...

After installing the fresh copy of Windows, now you need to import the EFS
security certificate that you used before so it matches with the one that
was used when you previously encrypted your files. If you neglected to
export your EFS certificate so it is available for import, those encrypted
files are inaccessible to you from now on.

If you made a drive image of your OS partition under which you had created
the EFS certificate then you could restore it, reboot into it, export your
EFS certificate, and then do the format and fresh install and import the old
EFS certificate.