unencrypt files help please.

justintime2001

justintime2001

justintime2001

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Several years ago I encrypted a bunch of files and forgot all about them. I lost a hard drive recently and would like to unencrypt the original files. I cannot remember the password or software used!!

Is there anything I can do to save these files please? They are family photographs from years ago and a member of the family has dementia and we would like to make a memory jogger for her if possible. Thanks.
 
justintime2001 said:
Several years ago I encrypted a bunch of files and forgot all about them. I lost a hard drive recently and would like to unencrypt the original files. I cannot remember the password or software used!!

Is there anything I can do to save these files please? They are family photographs from years ago and a member of the family has dementia and we would like to make a memory jogger for her if possible. Thanks.
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How did you encrypt them? What encryption algorithm did you use? How long was the password?

If the password was short and didn't use lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols you could try to brute force the password, if the password was strong though then this could take thousands of years (or more). The whole point of encryption is to stop people without the password being able to access the files so unless you were using a weak encryption algorithm or a weak password you are out of luck I am afraid.

If you are going to try and brute force the password then use some software that makes use of your GPU (assuming you have a good one) it should be faster than the CPU.
 
Thank you for your replies.

The file types are labelled S#! file. I believe I used TrueCrypt to encrypt them. Unfortunately I have had a bad head injury since the encryption so can't remember password etc.

Can you recommend software for the brute force the password approach please?
 
I've never needed to try it.

All I can suggest is trying some of the options that turn up if you Google 'TrueCrypt brute force'. There do seem to be a few options out there.
 
All seems a little dodgy to me but.. I'm not sure why you'd encrypt a photo storage harddrive anyway if I am honest.

Try and make a list of passwords you've used over the years, people tend to use similar ones of variations of the same.
2, check drives for a password file just in case you've saved it.

You could try a linux live USB and try things such as TruCrack
 
AHarvey said:
All seems a little dodgy to me but.. I'm not sure why you'd encrypt a photo storage harddrive anyway if I am honest.
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The answer is very simple. The whole drive was encrypted because it had copies of all our banking details, insurances, pensions, wills etc. It was just a backup of everything, nothing dodgy about it all, sorry. As I explained previously, if it hadn't of been for the stupid head injury I wouldn't be in this mess.
 
makes more sense.

I thought when encrypted a drive you had an encryption key file that you could save to decrypt if needed? if so, could you have a back up somewhere?

I've only had to do it a couple of times on work laptops but it's a ball ache even with simple passwords.
 
Unfortunately because of the head injury I really have no idea how or what I did other than using TrueCrypt. I think I'm stuffed to be honest, just thought id ask incase someone had an magic answer :)
 
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