Re: EFS Decryption - Lost Certificate
Since you have now established that the cert used does
match the fingerprint of the files, and since it is not likely
that you intentionally removed the private key, the message
seems to me to be indicating that the account password is
not right (i.e. not reset to what it was the last time something
was decrypted or the last time it was set via change with use
of the old pwd).
<amitava.bhattacharyya@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:e7837c40-2e4c-4daa-97fb-113c23f3f9d3@t1g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
The Personal Certificate Manager shows two certificates. efsinfo also
verifies that the currently installed key fingerprint is different
from the key fingerprint in the encrypted files. Since I hadn't
encrypted anything since that unfortunate episode, I exported the
newer certificate and deleted it. Then to be doubly sure, I went to
User Options (as far as I remember, I used the User Options last time
too) and changed my password (to what it already is), logged off, and
logged in. Still no success
Windows complains that the private key associated with the older
certificate can't be found. I guess that is the reason why I'm having
no success, although why this should be so is beyond me.
Thanks for the help!
On Dec 28, 8:42 pm, "Roger Abell [MVP]" <mvpNoS...@asu.edu> wrote:
> If you really have changed the password back to what it was,
> in the same way (reset rather than change with providing of
> the old and the new), then perhaps you just have an extra EFS
> certificate that is now in the way.
> If you start / run certmgr.msc and look in the Personal cert
> store how many EFS certificates do you see?
> If more than one then you need to get the newer one out of the way.
> However, having a newer one means that you probably encrypted
> something after you had changed the password (and that would now
> be inaccessible due to the changed password). So, first you need
> to figure what the newer cert controls access to and get that in the
> clear unencrypted (change password back and then decrypt).
> Then for safety export the newer certificate. After that, delete the
> newer and change your password back to what was correct for
> the older certificate.
> In the future, change (not reset) your password so that this does
> not happen.
>
> Roger
>
> <amitava.bhattachar...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:566b4e3c-aa00-4209-9b28-3dd93588fa85@s12g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Hi,
>
> > Sometime back, I had encrypted a folder on my hard drive. In between,
> > I changed my password. Obviously, I was denied access to those files
> > thereafter. So I went back and restored my previous password. Still, I
> > can't access the files. However, when I check Advanced Properties >
> > Encryption Attribute Details, my username is shown in the list of
> > users who have transparent access to the file(s). To add to my woes, I
> > didn't make a backup of the encryption certificate, and XP has no
> > default recovery agent, as I learned later.
> > Is there any way to recover these files? Or are they gone for good?
>
> > TIA!
),