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I am CURRENTLY on a Windows 10 Pro (Version 1903, Build 18362.657) laptop. An older laptop stopped posting to screen, and trying to get external display wasn't working, so I took out harddrive and put it in external drive enclosure to get my files off it. However, a lot (not all) of the files have that yellow lock icon on them and I cannot move, open, decrypt, or change owner, etc. from my current laptop.
I did have a windows password, I don't think I had a whole-disk encryption password. A lot of the files with the lock icon are ones that were downloaded from internet, like my pictures and pdf's from bank statements, etc. Some files that did not come from internet have the icon too, but again, not all. I believe I might have done the "encrypt this folder and contents" on some of them.
I do remember my old Windows password, and I am able to see, I believe, the certificates that might have to do with the old laptop's encryption (when I run the "manage certificates" msc and do "find" on the "Personal" folder, I see some certificates issued by my old laptop's computer name, and the "intended purposes" columns has "encrypting file system". I was able to export a certificate to my new computer's drive, but everything I've tried to try to unencrypt a file from the old laptop's harddrive (again, now in an enclosure being treated as an external drive) fails.
The old laptop's drive was initially a windows 7, upgraded to windows 10 when microsoft suggested it and did it for free.
I think if my old laptop hadn't taken a dump on me, i would be able to just right-click, go to Advanced, and uncheck "encrypt file". But since I'm accessing the drive as an external drive on a different laptop with its own Windows install, I can't do this.
Is there any way, given that I can see all the files on this OS external drive, to unencrypt these files? I can't use the external as a boot drive and boot up the windows from that drive on my laptop, I did try setting boot order to external USB, but I think because that other install of windows was an OEM install (Dell) it doesn't work on different laptop.
I've tried the "changing ownership" stuff I've seen, but it seems like every article/post I've found about this on the web assumes it's a non-OS harddrive or a recovered drive still its original machine, whereas mine is a different laptop's C (OS) drive that's been removed and placed in an external drive enclosure and is being accessed by different machine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks for reading
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I did have a windows password, I don't think I had a whole-disk encryption password. A lot of the files with the lock icon are ones that were downloaded from internet, like my pictures and pdf's from bank statements, etc. Some files that did not come from internet have the icon too, but again, not all. I believe I might have done the "encrypt this folder and contents" on some of them.
I do remember my old Windows password, and I am able to see, I believe, the certificates that might have to do with the old laptop's encryption (when I run the "manage certificates" msc and do "find" on the "Personal" folder, I see some certificates issued by my old laptop's computer name, and the "intended purposes" columns has "encrypting file system". I was able to export a certificate to my new computer's drive, but everything I've tried to try to unencrypt a file from the old laptop's harddrive (again, now in an enclosure being treated as an external drive) fails.
The old laptop's drive was initially a windows 7, upgraded to windows 10 when microsoft suggested it and did it for free.
I think if my old laptop hadn't taken a dump on me, i would be able to just right-click, go to Advanced, and uncheck "encrypt file". But since I'm accessing the drive as an external drive on a different laptop with its own Windows install, I can't do this.
Is there any way, given that I can see all the files on this OS external drive, to unencrypt these files? I can't use the external as a boot drive and boot up the windows from that drive on my laptop, I did try setting boot order to external USB, but I think because that other install of windows was an OEM install (Dell) it doesn't work on different laptop.
I've tried the "changing ownership" stuff I've seen, but it seems like every article/post I've found about this on the web assumes it's a non-OS harddrive or a recovered drive still its original machine, whereas mine is a different laptop's C (OS) drive that's been removed and placed in an external drive enclosure and is being accessed by different machine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks for reading
More...