Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations wOOdy-Soft on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Encrypted File System

Status
Not open for further replies.

Shift838

IS-IT--Management
Jan 27, 2003
987
US
Is there anyway to decrypt a file encrypted with EFS if you do not have the key?

 
Now I don't know this system but if its easy to decrypt something I wouldn't use it in the first place as it kinda beats the purpose of crypting the file system if you can easily decrypt it.

Maybe there is a master key that you can use but as I said im not familiar with EFS.

Just did a quick search on it
"Did you know that Windows 2000 and Windows XP Pro Edition can encrypt your files so that nobody else (other than the Windows user that encrypted the files) can read it? Even reinstalling Windows with the same user name or inserting the hard disk into another PC does NOT reveal the data! However, this also means that YOU have to backup your KEY carefully, otherwise you can no longer access your data after a Windows reinstallation or if the key files become corrupted."

So if you lost the key it doesn't look good.

Maybe this guide from microsoft can help you
Step-by-step

---
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
 
Probably not, if you have no backups of it, or no default Recovery Agent for the machine.

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

post crash re-installation
thread779-915672

EFS Data Recovery Agent - How do I do this?
thread779-974529

An encrypted file or folder is decrypted if you CAN? copy it to a volume that is not an NTFS file system volume (ie. CD or Floppy disks).

308991 - HOW TO: Share Access to an Encrypted File in Windows XP

302093 - HOW TO: Prevent Files from Being Encrypted When Copied to a Server

308993 - HOW TO: Remove File Encryption in Windows XP

EFS Related Information
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
 
I found a program that will do what i need it to do, its called Advanced EFS Recovery.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top