Guest Freitag Posted September 14, 2007 Posted September 14, 2007 Hi. A couple of years ago, I encrypted my "My Documents" folder, at the request of my company. Shortly afterwards, we switched to a program that encrypts the entire hard drive, and I forgot that my data files were also encrypted by Windows. I got a new computer, made a backup of the entire hard drive on my old machine, and disposed of my old machine. My new box has a different version of XP. 1 - Can I use my entire backup from DVD to restore my keys/certs/whatever? 2 - Must I do a complete restore to do this recovery, or can I just restore parts? (I do not have a recovery agent, nor did I back up my keys/certs. Please do not direct me to any of Microsoft's oh-so-helpful sites. They directed me to this forum.)
Guest John Wunderlich Posted September 14, 2007 Posted September 14, 2007 Re: Windows XP Encryption =?Utf-8?B?RnJlaXRhZw==?= <Freitag@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in news:922828E0-8F64-4D84-8B88-A2B0F82E06BC@microsoft.com: > Hi. A couple of years ago, I encrypted my "My Documents" folder, > at the request of my company. Shortly afterwards, we switched to > a program that encrypts the entire hard drive, and I forgot that > my data files were also encrypted by Windows. > I got a new computer, made a backup of the entire hard drive on my > old machine, and disposed of my old machine. My new box has a > different version of XP. > 1 - Can I use my entire backup from DVD to restore my > keys/certs/whatever? 2 - Must I do a complete restore to do this > recovery, or can I just restore parts? > (I do not have a recovery agent, nor did I back up my keys/certs. > Please do not direct me to any of Microsoft's oh-so-helpful sites. > They directed me to this forum.) > Not promising. Your only chance lies in restoring your system to exactly the same state as it was when you had access to your files. Since you have a different computer, it may not be possible to restore the old system and get it to boot as your motherboard and chipsets have changed. There's also the possiblilty that part of the encryption to access your certificates is based on computer hardware. Whenever using Windows Encrypted File System, it is VITAL to immediately backup your certificates or it's just a matter of time before you permanently lose your data. Good Luck, John
Guest NoConsequence Posted September 14, 2007 Posted September 14, 2007 Re: Windows XP Encryption On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:31:30 GMT, John Wunderlich <jwunderlich@lycos.com> wrote: >=?Utf-8?B?RnJlaXRhZw==?= <Freitag@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote >in news:922828E0-8F64-4D84-8B88-A2B0F82E06BC@microsoft.com: > >> Hi. A couple of years ago, I encrypted my "My Documents" folder, >> at the request of my company. Shortly afterwards, we switched to >> a program that encrypts the entire hard drive, and I forgot that >> my data files were also encrypted by Windows. >> I got a new computer, made a backup of the entire hard drive on my >> old machine, and disposed of my old machine. My new box has a >> different version of XP. >> 1 - Can I use my entire backup from DVD to restore my >> keys/certs/whatever? 2 - Must I do a complete restore to do this >> recovery, or can I just restore parts? >> (I do not have a recovery agent, nor did I back up my keys/certs. >> Please do not direct me to any of Microsoft's oh-so-helpful sites. >> They directed me to this forum.) >> > >Not promising. Your only chance lies in restoring your system to >exactly the same state as it was when you had access to your files. >Since you have a different computer, it may not be possible to restore >the old system and get it to boot as your motherboard and chipsets have >changed. There's also the possiblilty that part of the encryption to >access your certificates is based on computer hardware. Whenever using >Windows Encrypted File System, it is VITAL to immediately backup your >certificates or it's just a matter of time before you permanently lose >your data. > >Good Luck, > John Besides this, what vital government secrets were you trying to protect? Honestly, there are so many better ways to keep junior and the spouse, or your drunk buddies, out of your files. Encryption is a recipe for disaster in most cases, UNLESS you have some sort of state secrets on your computer.
Guest Poprivet Posted September 17, 2007 Posted September 17, 2007 Re: Windows XP Encryption Freitag wrote: > Hi. A couple of years ago, I encrypted my "My Documents" folder, at > the request of my company. Shortly afterwards, we switched to a > program that encrypts the entire hard drive, and I forgot that my > data files were also encrypted by Windows. > I got a new computer, made a backup of the entire hard drive on my old > machine, and disposed of my old machine. My new box has a different > version of XP. > 1 - Can I use my entire backup from DVD to restore my > keys/certs/whatever? Possibly. Try it and see what happens. 2 - Must I do a complete restore to do this > recovery, or can I just restore parts? Depends. Try it and see. > (I do not have a recovery agent, nor did I back up my keys/certs. > Please do not direct me to any of Microsoft's oh-so-helpful sites. > They directed me to this forum.) That conflicts with what you said in 1 above, or I misunderstand. If you don't have the backup, you're 99.9% certain to be sol. The new machine creates all new and mostly random keys so the chances of getting a match are dismally tiny to none. You are almost certainly going to need the services of a professional company to recover them or, rebuild them, if possible. Or, if it's available of course, restore them unencrypted from another archive. The encryption is purposely designed so that moving things to another machine (or even hard drive) still leaves it impossible to render the files in any meaningul way. In other words, what you have is by design: So, theft of the files would still leave the thieves with an impressive problem. I wish you luck, but I have never seen anyone succeed if they didn't have their backed up keys. Maybe you can be the first? Good luck, Pop`
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