EFS nightmare...

From: alec eiffel (a_eiffel_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 10/23/03 

Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 22:32:57 -0700

Hi there,

I'm trying to recover files on my hard drive that have
been encrypted with an old EFS certificate, and I'm hoping
someone can help me. My registry became corrupted, and in
the process of repairing the registry and reinstalling
windows xp, my profile was overwritten (though my files
and other data are intact). However, i can no longer
access the encrypted files. (Before you tell me I should
have made a backup key -- I did. But I lost the floppy.
What I should have done is not lost the floppy...)

Anyway, I've checked
out "www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/" but it's
near incomprehesible (to me), and i don't think the
instructions apply to windows xp; for instance, i couldn't
find a registry key that
matched: "hklm\sam\sam\domains\account\users\%
usernumbers%". If someone could help me interpret the
instructions to match my situation, i would really
appreciate it.

The reason I think there's a ray of hope is that I
downloaded the program "EFS Key"
from "www.lostpassword.com" and it was able to
successfully decrypt an encrypted text file and show some
of the text in it's preview pane. However, the program is
not compatible with dynamic drives, so it cannot fully
recover files on a dynamic drive. And, ofcourse, you-
guessed-it, I converted my NTFS drive to dynamic a few
months ago (some, uh, microsoft site said it was a smart
thing to do...)

Anyway, if this program is able to partially decrypt this
text file (with my original password), then some portion
of the certificate and private key must be present
somewhere on my disk. If only I could find it, and somehow
import it into my certificates base, regaining access to
all my files... can anyone help?

thanks...

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