Hi l
Iv got a questions that im desperately trying to have
answered. Maybe you have some advice.


Being the smart ass that i am, i decided a few months ago
to add windows basic file encryption to some of my
documents- Including some academic essays and projects.I
did this to avoid accedental deletion and other people
viewing the files. However i needed to reformat my pc and
forgot about the encryted files which were on another hard
drive. The problem now is that windows won't allow me to
view these files and i get the message user does not have
access privleges. i'v tried reclaiming the file and adding
a new certificate to allow me to view the documents but
with no success. My sytem runs xp pro and is a single user
p.c with my logon having administrator privleges, so i
don't understand why i dont have access privleges. is there
anyway to change the encryption on these files and reclaim
them so i can read the work..

please help with any suggestions.
cheers ckit

U didnt by chance generate files for the recovery agent and stored them away on floppy disk as u encrypted those files ?

If not, well u will have a hard time recovering them, practically impossible

I've just done this a couple of weeks ago in my Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator training. To be honest, I did skip through this pretty quick as I wasn't going to implement it but basically, if you haven't stored another copy un-encrypted elsewhere, like Bad_Karma[CORE] said, then you've got a BIG problem.

The whole concept of the Encrypting File System (EFS) is that it's VERY secure. It's tied down to your user account and your user account only. Wiping your PC and installing a different copy of Windows and then creating a new account with the same name does NOT make it the same user account. Copying the files to another PC and setting up a new user account with the same name on that PC does NOT make it the same account. That would make a complete mockery of the whole EFS security concept. EFS is only for stuff that needs to be REALLY secure! Even an account that is part of the Administrators group cannot decrypt EFS-encrypted files.

However, and this might be the bit that saves you, a user account CAN be assigned as a member of the Encrypted File Recovery Administrators group (or something like that - sorry I can't remember the exact name). If you can get yourself into a group that called something along those lines, and then reboot, you might be able to recover your important data.

Let this be a lesson to everyone else! Most people's school / college work is not sensitive enough that you need EFS. Use Microsoft Word's password function or something like that. Or package your project up with Winzip and stick a password on the ZIP file. If you work in a Bank, a law firm or the Ministry Of Defence, then maybe EFS is worth considering and researching and planning for. The rest of you: leave it alone !!