Encryption problem

[oberon]

Hi.

I recently formated my computer and reinstalled windows but when I backed up my files but I forgot to remove the windows encryption from some of them now I am unable to access my files.

Can anyone help?

 

[apj101]

unless you allocated a recovery agent then you have almost certainly lost the decryption keys, and well the files are lost.... thats the whole point!

 

[oberon]

Is there no way to break the encryption or enter the files?

 

[loque]

No. That's the whole point in encryption. You should have read and understood the risks of encrypting data with EFS before encrypting. Unless you backed up the private key or the recovery agent certificate before you formatted, the data is now lost.

 

[Jiffyman]

Was the data really that important? Why did you encrypt it in the first place?

 

[Jiffyman]

I found this program it's a 30-day trial, but it has some limitations http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html if your willing to pay 200$ then it might work, but since you don't have encrytion keys I really don't work. I'll test it when I get home. I found another demo http://www.lostpassword.com/efs.htm

 

[apj101]

a) none of those ever work, they are just designed to take your money
b) I judge this topic to be breaking the law a little and therefore it will stop...

NOW

 

[oberon]

I have to say this I expected more.

 

[loque]

I have to say this I expected more.

What do you mean? You encrypted files, and then you lost the key. There is no way to get the data back unless you can get the private key back, which is probably going to be impossible.

Let's say you hadn't lost the data, would you want it to be easy for an attacker to get the data back? No.