no file access after reinstalling Win XP Pro sp2
 

I was having some problems with AVG firewall trial and finally just formatted
and reinstalled my Windows XP. Since then, I am unable to access my Microsoft
Office 2003 files. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me I don't have
sufficient permissions to access these files. I am the only user and have
full admin rights. I am also using a trial version of Office 2003 and was
before formatting. Has anyone had any experience with this type of problem?
Can anyone offer any suggestions?
I would like to avoid having to reformat again, but I will if I have to.

I just noticed that this has to do with files that I had previously
encrypted. I have since tried to remove the encryption, but am unable to. Can
someone please help me with this as I need to get access to these files.

"maritimegal" wrote:

I was having some problems with AVG firewall trial and finally just formatted
and reinstalled my Windows XP. Since then, I am unable to access my Microsoft
Office 2003 files. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me I don't have
sufficient permissions to access these files. I am the only user and have
full admin rights. I am also using a trial version of Office 2003 and was
before formatting. Has anyone had any experience with this type of problem?
Can anyone offer any suggestions?
I would like to avoid having to reformat again, but I will if I have to.

What did you encrypt the files with, MS Word or XPs EFS encryption
protocol?

"GreenieLeBrun" wrote:

What did you encrypt the files with, MS Word or XPs EFS encryption
protocol?

XP EFS encryption. I am able to remove the folder encryption, but not at the file level.

Does anyone have any idea why I am having such a problem decrypting the
files? I can decrypt the folders without any problem. When trying to decrypt
the files, I get the message access is denied. I would appreciate any help. I
really need these files.

"maritimegal" wrote:



"GreenieLeBrun" wrote:

What did you encrypt the files with, MS Word or XPs EFS encryption
protocol?

XP EFS encryption. I am able to remove the folder encryption, but not at the file level.

This link may help:-
How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...308421&sd=tech

"GreenieLeBrun" wrote:

This link may help:-
How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...308421&sd=tech

Thank you for your reply, unfortunately this seems to only apply to Windows XP Home, I have Windows XP Pro and do not have a security tab.

This is what happens after I right-click and choose Properties, I click on
the Advanced tab and try to remove the encryption.
An error occurred applying attributes to the file: Access is denied.
My choices then are Ignore, Ignore All, Retry and Cancel.

When I try opening the file, I get an access is denied message.

I really appreciate the help you have provided thus far and hope that you
are able to come up with a solution. I will be unemployed as of tomorrow and
need to access my resumes.

Thank you,

Paula

I am assuming here that you encrypted the files using the EFS service
that is part of XP, if that is the case and you did not create a
Recovery Agent and saved and exported the various keys and certificates
then I am afraid that your chances of unencrypting your data is
vanishingly small.

The following two links (I have used the TinyURL service found at
http://tinyurl.com/ to reduuce the size of the link addresses) may give
you more insight into EFS.
http://tinyurl.com/4ucsp
http://tinyurl.com/9xmvk

Yes, I was using EFS. I did this a few months ago and am not sure exactly
what I did at the time. I don't have time to read all the information
tonight, but I thank you for providing it. I will read it during the next few
days. If you don't mind, I may have to ask you some more questions.

"GreenieLeBrun" wrote:

I am assuming here that you encrypted the files using the EFS service
that is part of XP, if that is the case and you did not create a
Recovery Agent and saved and exported the various keys and certificates
then I am afraid that your chances of unencrypting your data is
vanishingly small.

The following two links (I have used the TinyURL service found at
http://tinyurl.com/ to reduuce the size of the link addresses) may give
you more insight into EFS.
http://tinyurl.com/4ucsp
http://tinyurl.com/9xmvk