Win XP File Excryption - corrupt user account

I have a workstaiton that was setup to use file encryption for a users My
Documents directory. The user account assoicated with the encryption
certificate is no longer a valid user on the machine, nor is the
administrator's account that was the file recovery account. I have the
certificates available but they don't do me any good because I can't log into
the system as either of those accounts. When I recreate the accounts new
certificates were generated.

So my question is, is there a way to reassign an account to use a different
certificate, with when creating the account or by changing an existing
account.

They end user has a lot of old and valuable documents inaccessible as the
result of this problem. I've tried everything I could think of but being new
to certificates ....
--
Jeff Sweeney

NMjSQLLLC wrote:
I have a workstaiton that was setup to use file encryption for a
users My Documents directory. The user account assoicated with the
encryption certificate is no longer a valid user on the machine, nor
is the administrator's account that was the file recovery account. I
have the certificates available but they don't do me any good because
I can't log into the system as either of those accounts. When I
recreate the accounts new certificates were generated.

So my question is, is there a way to reassign an account to use a
different certificate, with when creating the account or by changing
an existing account.

They end user has a lot of old and valuable documents inaccessible as
the result of this problem. I've tried everything I could think of
but being new to certificates ....

I can't answer your question directly but the following links may help.

The Encrypting File System
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...hyetc/efs.mspx

Best practices for the Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223316/en-us

How to back up the recovery agent Encrypting File System (EFS) private key
in Windows Server 2003, in Windows 2000, and in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241201

How To Encrypt a Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308989

How To Remove File Encryption in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308993

How To Encrypt a File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307877

GreenieLeBrun wrote:
NMjSQLLLC wrote:
I have a workstaiton that was setup to use file encryption for a
users My Documents directory. The user account assoicated with the
encryption certificate is no longer a valid user on the machine, nor
is the administrator's account that was the file recovery account. I
have the certificates available but they don't do me any good because
I can't log into the system as either of those accounts. When I
recreate the accounts new certificates were generated.

So my question is, is there a way to reassign an account to use a
different certificate, with when creating the account or by changing
an existing account.

They end user has a lot of old and valuable documents inaccessible as
the result of this problem. I've tried everything I could think of
but being new to certificates ....

I can't answer your question directly but the following links may help.

The Encrypting File System
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...hyetc/efs.mspx

Best practices for the Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223316/en-us

How to back up the recovery agent Encrypting File System (EFS) private key
in Windows Server 2003, in Windows 2000, and in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241201

How To Encrypt a Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308989

How To Remove File Encryption in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308993

How To Encrypt a File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307877


Take a look at TrueCrypt.org for the TrueCrypt application.
Strong encryption and not tied to any WIN XP objects/certificates.
Creates an virtual volume that is password/phrase protected and
totally portable!