Accessing Encrypted Files on a Slave Hard Drive/Missing Exported Keys

Dear all,

Many years later, I am sad to report I completely failed in my attempt to do the above. I am only running into this problem again because I have bought new HDDs (and processor/mobo/GPU) and am getting ready to retire my old HDDs and transfer their data to a new system. I don't have Windows 7 yet, so I am probably for now just going to install Win XP on my new HDD, that will have 2 other slave drives.

I still have the old files in the old HDD that are still encrypted though (as I explained previously, the Win XP on that old HDD was corrupted and I cannot log in to it anymore), and before I totally nuke them/erase the old drive, I would like to try one last time to save them and was wondering if anyone here would have a suggestion on what to do with my new Win XP installation, in order to get those files back.

I still have access to the old HDD's file folders, and I can see the old certificate/EFS key under the F:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\My\Certificates folder (its a system file with no extension that has a long string of characters as its name), and was wondering if I could use that file somehow to install in the new hard drive, to be able to access the encrypted files. Again, I can't boot into that HDD in order to export that EFS key in the traditional way (described here: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-t…pted-xp-files/).

I can, however, just copy and paste the EFS key, but I haven't the faintest if that would work. Do I just copy that file into my new HDD's equivalent user folder, and I can access the encrypted files?

Sorry for essentially asking the same question again, however, I noticed the links that were provided in the previous answers to my first post have now disappeared and no longer work. I also hoped maybe there was an updated way to deal with this (maybe new software someone knows of, that is used for this express purpose?).

Any ideas / guidance / thoughts on this are much appreciated! Thank you.

Hi temujin, I don't think we are able to help you further in this matter… As you have put a lot of work and effort into this and before you destroy all your data files…. it might be a good idea to consider taking a disc image of the old hard drive, and just keep the old hard drive…. at least your files will still be there…. should you find a reliable method of accessing them. Regards paws

Hi Paws, Thanks for the thoughts on it! Yes, it indeed does seem like a dead end. One development though, I managed to do a "repair without deleting data" of Windows XP on the old HDD that has the encrypted files, and I actually was able to boot into it all the way to the desktop. Oddly, however, when I looked at the old encrypted files they were still encrypted (shown by the names appearing in green lettering, and a "file not found" message upon opening them). Just in case that rings a bell with anyone! But yes, your suggestion to preserve the old HDD and make a disk image of it, is a good one. Thanks, Temujin