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Recover encrypted files after upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10

Anonymous
2019-08-25T14:26:07+00:00

Hi,

I did the following:

  1. Was using Windows 7 and had a directory of encrypted files
  2. Replaced the motherboard and CPU, added a new SSD as the system drive (C:) , and added the previous system drive as an additional drive (G:)
  3. Clean installed Windows 10 on the new system drive

So my entire old Windows 7 installation is still intact, but it is not the system/boot drive anymore.

Since my new Windows 10 install is a clean one, it obviously doesn't recognize me as the same previous Windows 7 user.  So even though I can see my files that were encrypted under Windows 7, I can't decrypt them.  And I can't seem to find any exported EFS certificates on my old drives.

Is there any way to recover these, aside from disassembling my new computer, reassembling my old one, booting up Win 7, logging in as my "old" self, and exporting my EFS keys from there?

For example, is it possible to import my old Win 7 user account into my new Win 10 OS?  And if I do that, will I be able to decrypt those files that I encrypted with that old Win 7 account?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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Anonymous
2019-08-25T16:27:44+00:00

Hi John

My name is Andre Da Costa; an Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP. I'm here to help you with your problem.

Unfortunately, I am afraid to say, if you did not create a backup of the EFS certificate file in advance, it will be next to impossible to decrypt those files without them.

When performing operating system upgrades, it is always recommended you decrypt the system and have a backup copy of the EFS keys.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-08-25T16:35:52+00:00

    No, you can't do that, you could rollback to Windows 7 (a significant chore), turn off the encryption or generate the EFS Cert file or both, then re-upgrade to Windows 10 again.

    Steps for rolling back:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wik...

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-08-25T16:31:10+00:00

    Thanks Andre.  Is there no way to log on using my old account, since the entire previous system drive is still intact?  Or if I were to somehow transfer my old account to Win 10, would that enable me to decrypt the files, since I still have the old username and password?

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