HELP! Encryption is KILLING ME!!!!

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Guest

I recently acquired Windows XP Pro. I was told of its incredible file protection abilities. I formatted a new drive to NTFS and quickly encrypted a bunch of critical files. However...I had to reload windows a couple of days ago and in doing so I lost my "keys". I didn't know that could happen! I also (being new) didn't set up a Recovery Agent. Now the files are sitting in my folder glowing a lovely green and I cannot open them at all. I cant even see them as read oly so I can recreate them. I have no backups and my whole life revolves around these files. PLEASE HELP! How can I access these files again? The files are in MS Word XP and MS Excel XP.
 
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 recently acquired Windows XP Pro. I was told of its incredible file protection abilities. I formatted a
new drive to NTFS and quickly encrypted a bunch of critical files. However...I had to reload windows a couple
of days ago and in doing so I lost my "keys". I didn't know that could happen! I also (being new) didn't set
up a Recovery Agent. Now the files are sitting in my folder glowing a lovely green and I cannot open them at
all. I cant even see them as read oly so I can recreate them. I have no backups and my whole life revolves
around these files. PLEASE HELP! How can I access these files again? The files are in MS Word XP and MS Excel
XP.
 
You need the keys.
Without them your data is as good as gone.

See this link to help prevent this in the future:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/encrypt.htm

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/


AXS said:
I recently acquired Windows XP Pro. I was told of its incredible
Click to expand...
file protection abilities. I formatted a new drive to NTFS and quickly
encrypted a bunch of critical files. However...I had to reload windows
a couple of days ago and in doing so I lost my "keys". I didn't know
that could happen! I also (being new) didn't set up a Recovery Agent.
Now the files are sitting in my folder glowing a lovely green and I
cannot open them at all. I cant even see them as read oly so I can
recreate them. I have no backups and my whole life revolves around
these files. PLEASE HELP! How can I access these files again? The
files are in MS Word XP and MS Excel XP.
 
If your whole life revolves around those files, you may as well put a gun to
your head now! They're GONE!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

AXS said:
I recently acquired Windows XP Pro. I was told of its incredible file
Click to expand...
protection abilities. I formatted a new drive to NTFS and quickly encrypted
a bunch of critical files. However...I had to reload windows a couple of
days ago and in doing so I lost my "keys". I didn't know that could happen!
I also (being new) didn't set up a Recovery Agent. Now the files are sitting
in my folder glowing a lovely green and I cannot open them at all. I cant
even see them as read oly so I can recreate them. I have no backups and my
whole life revolves around these files. PLEASE HELP! How can I access these
files again? The files are in MS Word XP and MS Excel XP.
 
That's not very smart to go encrypt a bunch of files and not bother to
backup. You got to remember to back up your stuff.
 
depends how much your life is worth, I'd sa

I'm no expert on encryption, but throw enough money at any problem and it goes awa

phone a data recovery service and get an estimate,

or delete them and realize how valuable today's lesson was
 
That would be a LOT of money.

And I am not sure they could in a reasonable amount of time (less than
a few years), but with technology changes anything is possible.
 
Eric said:
Next time round you might first ensure that a copy of your keys are
backed up OFF your computer! Perhaps on a usb flashdisk or diskette.
If windows will not let you do that then do not use their encryption. All
computers
crash and programs and operating systems have to be reinstalled sooner or
later. Shop around for a third party product. I would suggest pgp or gpg,
There are others but you have to look around yourself.

:
Click to expand...
Or try this one from http://www.bmc-engineering.com
The keys can be as short as 12 characters or as long as 32
 
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