locked myself out of my files!

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Hi all

ive done 3 hrs research and cant find an answer so i hope someone can help!

i did a fresh install of XP pro onto my new raptor yesterday and have hooked my old C drive up as a data drive, but stupidly i had forgotten that there are some encrypted movie files on my old drive and in fact on some of my other drives. I have tried to access them but i havent got the original certificate which would have been used to encrypt them a\s i deleted the windows files from the old drive.

is there any way that i can access these or are they lost forever?

thanks all...

 

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I don't think that there's anyway to recover the files. Unless you want to spend loads of money on data recovery that is.

I could be wrong though.

BTW, what is a Raptor?

 

hi

thanks for the reply...i think ur right, i really cant find anyway to do it...maybe if i could get back my certificate but i deleted it along with the windows files

a raptor is a 10,000 rpm hard drive, ive got to the point that my old ide drive was too slow so went for some speed. its expensive but worth it!

 

this is something i haven't personally come against. If i find anything i will let you know. Am i right in saying you will keep the old drive intact while you try and resolve the matter?

 

hi

yes, i will keep the old drive hooked up and not write anything to it, in case i am able to restore on it. ive found a few useful programs in which appear to confirm the deleted files which of course are still actually on the drive until u over write them...

ive learned a lot about encryption today!! (

 

oh, good. I'll have a look for you, if i find anything i'll come back here

 

great! thanks mate

 

I fear you may be goosed here, mate. Not sure if some of the recovery apps (eg Ontrack) would be able to get around the encryption. I guess it's safe to say you never set up a recovery agent other than the default Admin for the original encryption key ?

 

yeah unfortunately i wasnt au fait with all this until today! haha, its not the end of the world but ive definately learned now...!

thanks chaps, i tried some of those programs which locate files once deleted, but although one found a lot of files the actual certificate file type was no where to be found..

nvmd!

thanks all,

 

no it doesnt im afraid, thanks tho...it says i need to have a pre-backed up certificate b4 the deletion occured. and that didnt happen for me...

thanks anyway, but im doomed

;)

 

If you knwo someone with a domain, it is possible using the domain EFS account. Designed as a get out for if employees leave etc.


Try here for info;

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243026/EN-US/

 

IMHO if you have used EFS to encrypt the files and you did not export the private EFS key (recovery key) you are stuffed!

When you re-installed the OS on the new drive, the local administrator will now have a different recovery key and that won't unlock the encrypted data created on the original OS.

You could try hooking up your old drive if it still contains an operating system and try booting from that. Then un-encrypt the files in question. Then re-configure to boot with your new drive and they should be accessible.