hi,i got a big problem with this scenario,1. If i hadn't plan a Recovery Agent,& no certificate backupa,is this posible to recover the encrypted files when i have reinstall my client windows by a clean install in workgroup enviroment?2.it seemscreating a recovery agent has 2 steps , i found that here:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887414. i hadn't understand whatdo exactly cipher /r , is this works forall local users? &give me more details about what cipher /r does& what i should do in domainenviroment for this step?i know for the second step i have to edit Domain Group Policyinstead.

Hi, I am afraid that you cannot recover the data by performing the steps in the KB article 887414, because the EFS certificate and private key that used to encrypt/decrypt the files are deleted after you reinstall the system and the files. In this case, you may consider contacting the data recovery companies to check if they can help recover the encrypted files. Cipher /r is used to create a self-signed EFS recovery agent key and certificate. For more information about EFS, please refer to the following article: Encrypting File System in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457065.aspx