Failed to access NTFS encrypted file after reinstalling XP

[Mir Mosharrof Hussain]

I am a PC user with very little technical knowledge. I will be very very thankful if you please go through my problem and give me a solution.

Problem :
File system was NTFS. OS was in partition-C and some encrypted JPEG image files in partition-D. It had 2 users, ‘Administr ator’ encrypted those image files. As the computer was gradually becoming slower and some programs were causing problem partition-C was formatted and the OS was reinstalled. Then it was found that those encrypted files in partition-D can not be opened anymore.

Information about the PC :
Stand alone PC with no network or internet connection
OS : Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS version : 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
Processor : x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~2259 Mhz (Intel Celeron D)
Motherboard : ASRock P4i45GV
BIOS Version/Date : American Megatrends Inc. P3.20, 8/19/2005
Total Physical Memory : 256.00 MB
Hard disc : Samsung SP0411N, 40GB


Actions tried as Administrator of the PC :ess to D:\**\**.JPG was denied”.
2. When tried to open those files with ‘Microsoft Photo Editor’ it gave a massage “Can’t determine type”.
3. When tried Explorer>file ‘D:\**\**. JPG’ selected>File>P roperties>Advan ced attributes>‘Enc rypt contents to secure data’ deselected>OK>A pply it gave a massage “An error occurred applying attribute to the file D:\**\**.JPG Access is denied”.
4. When tried Explorer>file ‘D:\**\**. JPG’ selected >File>Propertie s>Advanced attributes>Deta ils -a new dialog box named ‘Encryptio n details for D:\**\**.JPG’ appeared. In that new box under heading ‘User Who Can Transparently Access This File’ user name- ‘Administr ator[Administrator@A SIF]’ and certificate thumbprint- ‘1B96 639D 5A7E 6347 175B C6C4 C646 5802 91C5’ appeared and under heading ‘Data Recovery Agent ….’ there is no information.
In that new box when button `Add..` was clicked another new box ‘Select User’ appeared with a list of two present users. When the user ‘Administr ator’ was selected and OK>OK clicked a massage box naming EFSADU with a massage “Error in adding new user(s). Error code 5” appeared.

Those actions were tried using same user name and same password as before.

I will be waiting for your kind respons.

Thank you

[AmberJain]

HELLO,
I expect that your files were encrypted using Encrypted File System. Now there's not much about this which I know of but I stumbled across a link (see link below) which may (or may not) help you.

LINK

Also, I think that accessing PC with "system" privileges may help you out but I'm not sure about this.

HOPE THIS HELPS.......... ...

[Mir Mosharrof Hussain]

Hello,

Thank you very much Mr/Ms ambrnewlearner. I am very grateful to you for your reply. I will try your suggestion.

Mosharrof

[AmberJain]

Hello,

Thank you very much Mr/Ms ambrnewlearner. I am very grateful to you for your reply. I will try your suggestion.

Mosharrof

Glad that it MIGHT help...........

BTW, you should use MR. in my case. And you can better refer to members on bytes.com without adding prefixes such as Mr./Ms/Mrs. to there handles or there might be a lot of confusion.

THANKS........