Share via

Decrypting EFS encrypted USB Drive

Anonymous
2023-09-18T20:07:01+00:00

Dear All,

Greetings of the day!

I have encrypted a usb drive with EFS, then formatted the PC and reinstalled windows, now when I enter the USB I cannot decrypt its content because I did not backup the certificate, is it possible to recover the certificate using recovery softwares? kindly assist me with the steps I may take to recover it.

Kind regards.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

1 answer

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Igor Leyko 111K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-09-18T22:05:19+00:00

    Hi,

    My name is Igor, it's a pleasure for me to help others and I'll do all my best to help you.

    Do you have a backup copy of your old system?

    If not, I'm very sorry but your data are lost unfortunately.

    You may try to use third party tools in attempts to decrypt your files, e.g. Advanced EFS Data Recovery tool, but chances are low.

    However, you may keep your files as is, hoping that 20-30 years later an increasing CPU power will allow to crack this encrypting.

    If you used quick formatting, your last resort is data recovering tools such as DMDE or Recuva. Maybe they will be able to find the bodies of the old registry files on the disk. In this case Advanced EFS Data Recovery tool may be helpful.

    I sympathize with you, but this is the purpose of the encrypting - to block data access without keys.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments