I had to re-install my windows 2000. How can I recover my files that were in the encrypted folders. I used the same login name and password in my new installed win2k system but I still can not access my files. Thank you for help janusz

There is a good chance they are gone for good. What allows you to decrypt files is if you are in possesion of the private key of the user who encrypted it or if you are a a recovery agent. By default the recovery agent is the administrator of the local machine or of the first domain controller installed in the domain if the computer is a member of a domain. If you reinstalled and had to create new users, even if they have the same username and password, they have a different key, therefore can not recover... sorry but that is the reason for encrytion.

Thank you for your response. I am not sure about one point. You wrote that I can decrypt files if I were in possesion of the private key or if I were a recovery agent. Actually, I have a stand alone windows 2000 computer so I am a recovery agent. I encrypted files using build-in administrator account. Now I reinstalled win2k using the same administrator password. In those conditions it is still impossible to recover data if I did not store the previous key? Thank you janusz

I'm afraid you are still out of luck. The administrator account was still recreated as part of the new install. It will have a new SID (Security Idendifier) associated with the account. In addition, the recovery key that was generated at the time the encryption was performed is now lost and to my knowledge can not be reproduced. Even without a reinstall a deleted user account can't be recreated by using the same name...the new account will again have a new SID assigned. Because of this, any associations based on the old SID will not exist. If there is a recovery method available I suspect it requires a significant expertise in cryptology. Wish I had a more encouraging response...best of luck. With peace...

About your only hope would have been if you have exported the key of the Administrator previously. This requires a utility call the Certificate Export Wizard and allows you to store the key or a copy of it to another location such as a floppy disk to be used later.

I learned important things from yours responses. I will be more carefull in the future. Thank you all. janusz