restore point and encryption

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Guest

I am using winXP pro
and I have some encrypted file which I can no longer read

I was able to find some old restore points but they are not registering on
microsoft restore. Going through the website I discovered that I may be able
to retreive them
but will that help with the encryption.

Help!
 
Offhand I don't know for sure but I really tend to doubt that a restore
point would help but it is always worth a try if it can be done. Did you
reinstall the operating system perhaps or "reset" your logon password with
an administrator account instead of changing it as the user? You also need
at least read/list/execute/write permissions to your EFS files in order to
decrypt them. Your EFS private key that is needed to decrypt files is stored
in your user profile. If your computer is a member of an Active Directory
Domain such as might be found in a business or school check with the
administrator for possible procedures to recover your files.

Steve
 
in message
I am using winXP pro
and I have some encrypted file which I can no longer read

I was able to find some old restore points but they are not
registering on
microsoft restore. Going through the website I discovered that I
may be able
to retreive them
but will that help with the encryption.
Click to expand...


I doubt a restore point will include certificates. You need to have
the EFS cert that you created when you enabled EFS (i.e., it gets
created the first time that you use EFS). There are several ways to
see if you have the cert. One is to open Internet Options, Content
tab, Certificates. See if you have a personal cert. If so, check its
properties to see if it an EFS cert. You'll see the purpose of the
cert under Details under the Enhanced Key Usage value.

So just how did you lose the EFS cert that you had when you enabled
EFS on some files? It sounds like the encrypted files might not be
yours. You "have some encrypted files". Okay, so how did YOU get
those encrypted files? Did you create them or did someone else,
perhaps on a different computer?

I am just assuming that you encrypted using EFS because that is what
comes included in Windows XP Pro. Could be you encrypted using some
other product. Could be you are asking about .zip files that are
password protected. Could be you are asking about TrueCrypt volumes.
We don't know because you have provided no details on how you
encrypted the files.

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The files are on a directory that I encrypted; the files are mine nothing
underhand just personal stuff but many family pictures.
I encrypted using the standard XP-Pro encryption everything was fine for
years and then one day I could no longer get to my files “access deniedâ€

-Bill
 
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