Windows Encryption problem

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

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Comments

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.