recovery agent/certificate problem?

[kieran]

hi all, i have the following problem:
i have some vital parts of my work encrypted with the xp-built in encryption, when sometime last week it crossed my mind, that a complete reinstall of my system was long overdue.
so thats what i did, after of course backing my files up to the 2nd harddisk.
but alas!
i couldnt access them anymore after i had completed the whole procedure and had restored the files to my 1st hd again.
now what i DID achieve, was to take ownership of all the files and read the ones not encrypted, but what i did NOT achieve was, to open the formerly (and still) encrypted files.
from window help i gathered, that i need to be a "recovery agent" to decrypt those files, which i actually should be, since i am admin and sole user of my computer.
i checked who has recovey-agents rights for those files, but it does not show any user.
if i try to add a recovery agent by following the windows help (change the recovery policy for the local computer), using the mmc, i need to specify a user. i can browse folders at that point, but have no idea where to find the appropriate certificate file (*.cer) to add a recovery agent. i did a search for that file type on my hd, but couldnt find any file of that type.
so i guess i need to create the certificate first?
that would then be the point where i am stuck, i guess.

anyone have a clou what i need to do to get my files back?
any help appreciated,
kieran

This has been asked a few times before and the answer is pretty much always the same . . . you're not going to be able to decrypt them. You should have done the decryption BEFORE backing up.

That's the way the encryption is designed.

You might try Googling for your answer, but as of this exact moment, I don't know of anyway to recover files that have been encrypted by XP.

A little bit from KBA 308993 . . .

NOTE: Only the user who encrypts a file can recover data that has been encrypted, unless the user specifies a recovery agent before they encrypted the files. To make sure that you have the ability to decrypt files in the future, you should always export your certificate and private key and keep them in a safe place . . .

[kieran]

yup, just read some of the threads up myself...
so i guess i'm out of luck on this one...
that sucks big time...

[John Prophet]

Arent you supposed to be able to just store the "certificate" in a safe place...and then use it to decrypt the files as in this case....withut decrypting b4 backup?

JP

[kieran]

jup, you are supposed to do so, but i guess i'm one of those "do first, think later" people, so i did not store the original certificates...

[DVNT1]

a new product came out that may be able to help you... http://www.lostpassword.com/efs.htm