I did it. I found a way to recover files encrypted by Windows XP encryption after a reinstall of the OS, and no encryption keys. Out of ignorance, I encrypted some directories that I wanted to keep private, but didn’t know about the export key thing. Then I got hit hard by a viral infection. The amount of time to remove it versus the time it would take to reinstall was ridiculous. So there went my file access, even though the username and password was the same. After a year of research and frustration, I have my files back. I won’t go into detail about how Windows goes about encrypting the files, but let it suffice to say that through a series of fortunate accidents, I succeeded. But there are a few catches. Catch #1: Physical access. You must have the drive in hand. If you don’t have physical access, you can pretty much forget it. Catch #2: You must buy software. I used a deleted file detector and was able to recover all of my files by directory. Catch #3: You cannot have used any scrubber software. What that means, is if you used a secure deletion program, this method won’t work. For the most part, if you are tech-savvy enough to be using one of these programs, chances are, you are tech-savvy enough to know better than to encrypt without exporting the keys to begin with, if you even bother to use
Windows encryption rather than a more secure option. If you meet these criteria, plug the drive in as a slave, power up, run the deleted file recovery program, and enjoy your files. A word of caution though – this is a VERY time consuming process. so you may want to do this on a spare pc. Also, sorting through all the files that you have deleted on the disk… Got a couple of days off? It took me a week of evenings after work and one solid – 16 hrs per day solid – weekend to finish. But I got my files back. 🙂 I should also note that you should never ever try to save the recovered files to the same drive you are recovering from. You may actually overwrite what you want back. Best bet? Use a spare drive or go get a second one. Happy filing! :woo:
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