File Encryption/Decryption

[anonymous]

I\'ve got a huge problem. I have 4 hard drives on my system, I replaced the \"C\" drive today with a brand new 100G drive, did a clean install, everything good so far. I store most files on the slave drives, including email folders, address books, ect. Well, I go to open one of the folders that I need to go into and it appears that at some point in time this one folder was encrypted and now I can\'t figure out how to decrypt it. Tried everything, resetting all permissions, ect. Any ideas? I seriously need help with this.

muffinassbastardEmail Removed

[Anonymous]

Log on as Administrator to recover encrypted files.

[Anonymous]

Tried that, no luck. When I go in to the properties of the file and uncheck the encryption tab and apply it\'s giving me errors and then access denied. I\'m really stumped with this because I have about 400mb of data that I really need and I didn\'t have it backep up to anything else.

[LRC]

OK. Were the these files encrypted with 128-bit encryption? If they were then you will need to install SP2 or the High Encryption Pack.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it was with Windows 2000 SP2, so it would be 128 bit encryption. I\'m not sure, but has there ever been any known problems with decryption under Windows 2000 that anyone has heard of?

[rdc]

I never heard of this ,in xp ntfs you can encrypt folders but in w2k I never found something like this , but then I allways replace my OS on a new harddisk with a ghost image .Try replacing the new harddisk by the old one , make an image of it and put it on the new harddisk . This is if you didn\'t allready format it , and if it is smaller than the new one .
I have three scsi harddisk and documents on other harddisks than the os .I have a dual boot c:WinXp - d:W2K , I recently replaced my winme by winxp ,(never got problems with encrypted files, or email folders .I imported the w2k folders in winxp , same as the address book . Perhaps it has something to do with ntfs (I still use fat 32). I hope it helps .

[LRC]

Move or copy the encrypted files to a non NTFS volume. This will allow viewing by anyone.

[Josetann]

I\'ve done quite a bit of checking into this (happened to me too).  What it is, is basically Win2k/XP has some type of random key it uses to encrypt files.  This particular random key is set when you install it.  Do an upgrade, and it is kept (or perhaps the encrypted files are decrypted and re-encrypted with the new key, but I\'d suspect the former).  As long as you only do upgrades, you\'re ok.  But if you do a complete new install, and don\'t decrypt those files first, they will be inaccessible.  Only way to retrieve them now is to get the old install of win2k running again (you said you replaced the C: drive, so I\'m hoping you can put it back in and boot win2k).  Once you do that, decrypt the files.  Put back in your new C: drive, and encrypt again.

[rdc]

How do you encrypt and decrypt files with win2k .
I know you can do this with winxp ntfs, but with win2k I don\'t know how . lol

[Anonymous]

Okay, this tells me a little. I do have the old Ghost image that I was using so I\'ll try to restore that image and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

You will need the private key of the Administrator at the time the files were encrypted in order to recover the files in question. If you can\'t do this then the files are lost forever.

If you succeed in restoring with Ghost the system partition that was present at the time the files were encrypted then you should have no trouble getting the private key. This key can be imported into a new installation in order to recover previously encrypted files.

Working in the old(Ghost) installation log on as Administrator and go to Control panel/Users and Passwords and click on the Advanced tab. Click on Certificates and then the personal tab. Highlight the entry Administrator and then click the Export button and use the Wizard to copy the private key to a floppy disk.

After doing a clean install on the new HDD use the same Control panel applet to import the private key that will unlock the encrypted files on the other disks. The only difference will be to click on the Import button instead of the Export button and follow the directions.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

The old Ghost image worked to decrypt my files. I want to thank everyone for the input and help. I hope this helps someone else, too.