Files were encrypted on a disk from a computer that the drive has since been
formatted and no backups exist anymore. The files were created and stored on
an external drive. With the drive connected to a different machine, of
course, they cannot be opened. I realize that any account on this system is
not a recovery agent nor the account that created encrypted the files. But
I'm guessing a way exists to recover the files, just hopeing you guys/gals
might have an idea of how to do it?

Hopefully I'm not S.O.L on this one

Thanks

Without a RA the only way would be if the user that created the EFS files
had exported their EFS certificate/private key to a password protected .pfx
file for safekeeping for and event like this. Also if there is a copy of the
user's profile somewhere in a backup there also may be a way to extract the
user's private key from it but my guess is there is not from your
description of the scenario. There is no backdoor way to access EFS files.
If there are no user or RA private key available then the files are forever
gone. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;223316 --- EFS info
and best practices.

"Kevin" <Kevin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:62D513C9-B06D-4BCF-BDC7-7A6E5828952E@microsoft.com...
> Files were encrypted on a disk from a computer that the drive has since
> been
> formatted and no backups exist anymore. The files were created and stored
> on
> an external drive. With the drive connected to a different machine, of
> course, they cannot be opened. I realize that any account on this system
> is
> not a recovery agent nor the account that created encrypted the files.
> But
> I'm guessing a way exists to recover the files, just hopeing you guys/gals
> might have an idea of how to do it?
>
> Hopefully I'm not S.O.L on this one
>
> Thanks

Kevin wrote:
> Files were encrypted on a disk from a computer that the drive has
> since been formatted and no backups exist anymore. The files were
> created and stored on an external drive. With the drive connected to
> a different machine, of course, they cannot be opened. I realize
> that any account on this system is not a recovery agent nor the
> account that created encrypted the files. But I'm guessing a way
> exists to recover the files, just hopeing you guys/gals might have an
> idea of how to do it?
>
> Hopefully I'm not S.O.L on this one

You might try third party products - but my initial guess would be S.O.L.

For example...
http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Without the necessary files, your data is effectively gone.
EFS is secure and there is no back door which would render EFS weak.
See the links at the bottom of this page to help prevent this in the future:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/encrypt.htm


--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"Kevin" <Kevin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:62D513C9-B06D-4BCF-BDC7-7A6E5828952E@microsoft.com...
> Files were encrypted on a disk from a computer that the drive has since
> been
> formatted and no backups exist anymore. The files were created and stored
> on
> an external drive. With the drive connected to a different machine, of
> course, they cannot be opened. I realize that any account on this system
> is
> not a recovery agent nor the account that created encrypted the files.
> But
> I'm guessing a way exists to recover the files, just hopeing you guys/gals
> might have an idea of how to do it?
>
> Hopefully I'm not S.O.L on this one
>
> Thanks

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 17:09:01 -0800, Kevin wrote:

> I realize that any account on this system is
> not a recovery agent nor the account that created encrypted the files.

Without the key you are totally hosed. You might as well accept that the
data is gone...

However you did say that the drive containing the key was formatted. That
in itself does not destroy the data. If you reinstalled the OS after that,
and all the data files, then you might be out of luck since it's likely
that the clusters containing the key have been overwritten by now.

--
Segovia