XP Encryption and adding a DRA

Dan G

Dan G

Dan G

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Joined
25 Jul 2004
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758
Location
Carmarthenshire, SW Wales.
Hi! Since I reformatted my HDD I didn't realise a good many of my files where encrypted in XP. Now that I have replaced them on my HDD I can't open them, and the Properties dialog box will not allow me to decrypt them.

If I encrypt a new file my username is shown as a DRA, but there isn't one shown for the old set of files.

How can I decrypt them? They're fairly important to me, so replies are all welcome, however dumb they may sound!
Thank you all!
 
Before I give you an answer let me just confirm what it is you've done:

You had an installation of Windows XP.
You used the built in Windows XP encryption tools to encrypt some of your data.
You've since reformatted your machine, I'm assuming these encrypted files were on another drive/partition/etc
At no point did you backup or export any encryption keys from your old Windows XP installation.

If the above is all true then I'm afraid I do have an answer for you - however you're not going to like it.
Your data is lost.
You will not be gaining access to those files again.
Those files are nicely encrypted so people cannot access them and you've destroyed your only set of keys.
Brute force will literally take you years.
 
blitz2163 said:
it can be done i had the exact same problem, theres a program which will decrypt them il have a look and see if i can find it for you

I think this was the one i used http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html
Click to expand...

From the "Known Problems and Limitations" section on the link you've provided:

The program can decrypt protected files only if encryption keys (at least, some of them) are still exist in the system and have not been tampered

The OP has reformatted his machine so none of the original encryption keys still exist.
The user has lost all of the data - he won't be getting it back.

Encryption isn't to be messed with - it amazes me when people are surprised when suddenly they find that encrypted files cannot be recovered.
For some reason people assume there is a backdoor into anything - if there was then there would be no point encrypting anything in the first place.

My Encryption keys live on my PC and a backup copy exists on floppy locked away in our firesafe at work - can't be too carefull.
 
Ok I get the message guys - I'm bugg€r€d. Ok well its not the end of the world I guess, I'll try that program I can't do worse I think. At least I know for the future!
Thanks all.

Edit - Any advice for the best wasy to back up my current keys for importing in the event of a similar problem? Cheers :)
 
Last edited:
Hi once again - I tried that program, and as we supposed it didn't manage to decrypt anything. However before I delete all these files my brother pointed out I did a system state backup before I reformatted with the XP Backup tool. Would that contain the keys, or would I have possibly backed them up manually, what directory are they stored in?

Cheers! Last ditch effort!
 
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