A mess including Access Is Denied when Decrypting Files
Hello, I want to upgrade from XP to 7, but I have some encrypted files (My documents). These encrypted files were encrypted using another user (not mine), and this user forgot the password as he don't use this computer anymore. Anyway, first I set the owner to Administrators using my user, changed the file access options, kept only the System, Original User & my user to full access, tried to decrypt and it didn't work. I realised it must be done using the original user. So I deleted his password using User Accounts and accessed his user. Tried to decrypt, and it didn't work, it also says Access Is Denied. I changed the owner back to the original user, modified the folder access to only system and the original user to full access. Tried to decrypt, also it didn't work. The original user didn't create any recovery files, his certificate on the folder security says it's not trusted. What to do now? 1 person needs an answerI do too
March 12th, 2010 3:51pm

I'm afraid you've really messed up any chance of unencrypting this data. If XP Pro's native EFS was used, you can try the Elcomsoft folks to see if their program can help but in all probability the data is gone. http://tinyurl.com/6l6xx - MS information about EFS (Encryption) http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html - Encrypted files retrieval application http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/encrypt.htm - encryption info http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/ - more encryption info MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
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March 12th, 2010 4:06pm

Ummm... what was the step I did wrong? Okay, i'll check it out. Thanks for your help
March 12th, 2010 4:32pm

& If he remembered his password, if I put his password to the original one... would it decrypt from his user? (If I need to change the folder access settings please tell me)
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March 12th, 2010 6:45pm

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