I Lost My Encrypted Data! What Now?
What should you do if your system fails? When the connection between the operating system and the keys physically located on the disk is lost, access to EFS-encrypted data is typically lost. Do not give up in this situation; there is a solution. There is a good chance that access to the data can be restored.However, if the keys were deleted from the disk and no backup copy of the user profile or the user’s certificates was made, the data is unrecoverable.In practice, even the export/import of the profile or certificates has proven to be effective:The keys do appear again. Scheme for Data EncryptionOnce direct access to the disk has been obtained, the next step – directly decrypting and restoring the data – is possible. This can be accomplished using the following strategy:1. Locate and attempt to decrypt all keys on the problem computer’s hard drive.2. Look for encrypted files on your hard drive and attempt to decrypt them.The Advanced EFS Data Recovery tool is one of the most effective tools for decrypting EFS-protected data. It can decrypt data on a problematic computer even if some of the user key records are corrupted.The capabilities and features of Advanced EFS Data Recovery are detailed below. EFS Data Recovery (AEFSDR) is a specialized software program that can decrypt files encrypted with EFS technology in Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, and the new Windows Vista environments.This software tool can decrypt files in record time, even if the system is not loaded or some of the encryption key records are corrupted.Even if the system user database is protected with SYSKEY, Advanced EFS Data Recovery can decrypt the files. All files in Windows 2000 can be decrypted even if the administrator and user passwords are unknown.Advanced EFS Data Recovery works in two steps: The first step is to locate and decrypt all EFS keys (private and master). The first step is to decrypt at least one key, which will be used to decrypt […]
