Windows 'upgrade' encryption

[skool h8r]

hi all,
Well, after a long battle with my HD, i finally managed to get it copied and backed up (would you belive that it was only 5 small files causing problems!!!). I've now reinstalled on the backup (don't want to damage the original) and i can view all my files through windows explorer. But i want to be able to get all my desktop back to how it was before the hardware upgrade. Now, when i used Computer management to set my profile path to the one that contains my original files, if i log off, and try to log back on, i get a message telling me that it can't copy my profile because there are encrypted files and the keys to decrypt them are stored in the profile.....but they're not available (*cries*). So, where do i go from here? I really want to be able to get it back to how it was without having to use my old hardware setup (don't even go there). If i have to use it to do some work on the hard drive using the old setup (to help me get it back to how it was), then i'm prepared to do that, but i just don't know what to do from here. I think i need to decrypt something, but i can't get in to decrypt it (except through windows explorer). And the error message doesn't help any, no error code or anything listing which files are encrypted. So, any help is much appreciated, it's been a long month (can you belive it's only about a month since i got this upgrade, blimey, seems much longer) without my old desktop and quick access to all my files. The ironic thing is, XP Home doesn't have EFS (Encrypting File System) on it but i had to go with Xp Pro didn't i.

So, anyone got the foggiest on what i can do? I have found this: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...y/cryptfs.mspx but i don't know if it'll help me.

Thanks,
Scott.

[JimF]

I guess you've done new install on a second drive or partition?

It may be that Windows won't let you access private data assigned to old user ID's even if you use the same user ID/password as it also generates a unique key against the user ID.

A new windows install is a good idea when swapping hardware but making an unprotected copy of all your data and settings (remove file encrytion etc) is an must do before you do this.

If you can log onto the 'old' Windows install then you can copy 'Documents and Settings' to a directory on your new disk or use the MSoft transfer wizard - if you can't.

Make sure anything you copy hasn't got any access restrictions - right click on the top level folder use the security tab and make sure that the 'all users' group has permissions set up.

If you're logged in as admin then adding your current user id to the list of those with permissions will sometimes get you into a directory that appears locked if Windows will let you !

[Favu]

Can you boot it up with your old set up, and use the files and settings transfer wizzard? That should sort out most things, I think