Re: Encrypting File System Recovery

From: Roland (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 03/24/04 

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 15:02:03 -0800

Thanks for the quick answer but unfourtnately this didn't
help me. One of the problem I think is that this is a
standalone workstation and not part of a domain so that
means that the local administrator account is my only
chance and like you say I had to reinstall some the of the
files for the OS due to some problems within the OS maybe
caused by the missing key for the encrypted file I don't
know.
So if I have understand you correct that when I
reinstalled some parts of the OS the installation process
created a new recovery agent for the administrator account
which doesn't have the ability to decrypt my files for the
specific user since for those files I would have need to
have the "old" key that the administrator account have
before reinstalling?
When I run efsinfo tool I got different Certificate
thumbprint for the files created with my old certificate
from the files created with the new certificate. Can this
help me in any way?
One thing that for me is strange is that the Recovery
Agent displayed by the efsinfo tool show "Unknown" for the
files that I can decrypt and for the files I can't decrypt
it displays my ordinary user = the user that created the
files that I now can't see due to the missing certificate.
If it was the other way around it would make sence or?
Regards
/Roland

>-----Original Message-----
>If you have reinstalled your operating system that can
cause losing the ability to
>decrypt the EFS files. You actually had to log on as
administrator during the
>installation process. Be sure you log on as the built in
administrator account which
>would be the default recovery agent - not just anyone in
the administrators group
>will do and be sure that the administrator has full
control on that folder and
>possibly try the cipher command to decrypt. See the links
below for more information
>including how to use the efsinfo tool to see who can
actually decrypt the files and
>who is the recovery agent using the /r switch.
>
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%
3B243026
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-
US;223316
>
>"Roland" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message
>news:193001c40f43$0245f0a0$3a01280a@phx.gbl...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have encrypted a folder using MS Encrypting File
System
>> and then I lost the certificate and the private key so
now
>> I can't access/open the files in that folder. I have
read
>> something about that the Admin account on my computer
>> should hold a recovery agent that should be able to
>> decrypt my files. But when I log on as administrator I
>> can't decrypt my files. I also read something that this
>> recovery agent is created the first time I log on as a
>> Admin but since I haven't logged on as an Admin due to
>> that my ordinary user I already a member of the Admin
>> group so I haven't had the need to log on as Admin
before.
>> Could this be the answer to why I can't decrypt/recover
my
>> files?
>> Does anyone know how to solve this problem or are the
>> files in my folder "gone" forever.
>>
>> /Roland
>>
>
>
>.
>

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