Encrypted folders protected by password

[adrian_sk]

I had just "eXPerienced" a system failure and I had my windowsxp user folders protected by password, I have heard that it's impossible to recover data from an encrypted folder , but i tought that maybe other people know how to recover data in that situation... I'd really apreciatte a helping hand you guys!

[Play_The_0dds]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308993
take a look at that link, they explain it better than i can.

[adrian_sk]

I think I need something a little less M$. Look, my whole system went down (reason: unknown) and I tried some solutions before re-install windows xp. The thing was that I forgot this encryption thing and I realized of that after it was already installing. Now, my folder seems to be 0 kb (looking at the properties), do you think data is gone? here is a list of characteristics of my system:

-40Gb HDD with 2 NTFS partitions (C: & D where C: was winxp pro partition & in D: i kept only "My Documents" (as private folder).

Thanks a lot for reading the post KC.

[vkatalov]

Originally posted by adrian_sk
I had just "eXPerienced" a system failure and I had my windowsxp user folders protected by password, I have heard that it's impossible to recover data from an encrypted folder , but i tought that maybe other people know how to recover data in that situation... I'd really apreciatte a helping hand you guys!

In most cases (if at least some of encryption keys have not been tampered), you can still recover/decrypt your files using "Advanced EFS Data Recovery" software:

http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html

[adrian_sk]

I found a solution for my problem, and I tought someone might be interested:

When WinXP crashes for some reason, and you have to reinstall it, your password protected data happen to be lost, but you can solve it reinstalling the operating system and setting your same old username and password when you're prompted to create new users and passwords.

So, if you had a folder called "My Porn" protected by WinXP crappy encryption, that folder should be accesible with the new-shinning-just-installed copy of WinXP.

Hope Someone find it usefull.

Adrian.