Windows Encryption problem

Pierre Mikhail

Hello All,

I have Encrypted a file on an external HDD from my personal laptop. Whilst away, My laptop was wiped and Windows 7 was installed..

I now cannot access a Word document that I have on this external HDD and I need to be able to open the file and get some information out. I have looked and looked to find a program that might be able to open it but failed soo many times I lost count. The HDD is a 120GB, NTFS drive and the file is located 4 levels down from the root.

I am at loss and I have no idea what to do from here.. ANY and ALL idea's would be awesome, and when I can access the file using someones method I will post the persons name.

Thank you for all your help and hope to hear losts of idea's soon.

Regards,
Pierre Mikhail

hill1221

If your account and certificate data was not backed up proir to wiping, if the file was encrypted you may be out of luck due to the following:

1) Certificate (if used) was wiped
2) Windows account SID was wiped (recreating account creates different SID)

:Questions:
Was the system state of the laptop backed up prior to the wipe?
Was the certificate (if used) stored in a central repository, from which it can be restored?
Was the user account data used for the laptop Local? or was it Network based (on server)?

willhi1979

If it's a corporate laptop they might have key archiving and could provide it.

Devilsbane

willhi1979 wrote: »

If it's a corporate laptop they might have key archiving and could provide it.

This is your only hope here. If this is your corporate laptop and they either have a data recovery agent or a key recovery agent.