Recovery of encrypted files (After a system reinstall)

[huberc]

A customer of mine has encrypted about 30 files and did not decrypt them prior to reinstalling the O/S (Windows XP Pro). I have followed the instructions provided by MS. IE: Login as Administrator, take ownership, create a Recovery Agent then user the Cypher command to decrypt the files, without success. There must be sure-fire way of getting this done. Any advice welcome.

Chris

 

[linney]

To be able to recover encrypted information on a computer in this case, you must have backed up the Recovery Agent's private key before the loss of the key. For more nformation about using EFS and backing up and restoring the Recovery Agent's private key, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to De-crypt Encrypted files on a Stand Alone machine
thread779-390584

223316 Best Practices for Encrypting File System

241201 HOW TO: Back Up Your Encrypting File System Private Key in Windows 2000

242296 How to Restore an EFS Private Key for Encrypted Data Recovery

If you do not have access to a Recovery Agent's account with a valid recovery key, you cannot recover the data. There is no workaround in EFS.

http://groups.google.com/groups?sou...count+with+a+valid+recovery+key,+recover+data