Unable to open encrypted files on my external hard drive

Question

_{Thursday, January 17, 2019 5:25 PM}

My work has replaced my computer.  I keep my files on an external HD that was secured with Bitlocker.  The external hard drive will now not allow me to access my files on my new computer.  I have unencrypted Bitlocker but it makes no difference.  I now have my previous computer, but I now can't access those files even on this computer.  The previous computer has been taken off of the domain, but has not been re-formatted.  I have run the trial version of Elcomsoft, but it asks for file names and certificate numbers and things that are outside of my knowledge base, so I can't get any further with that.  Any ideas?

All replies (6)

_{Thursday, January 17, 2019 5:43 PM}

So you can see individual files, but can not open them?
What error do you get?

Did you perhaps encrypt the files with EFS?

_{Friday, January 18, 2019 7:50 AM}

Hi davidmisd,

Please check your permission first: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/take-ownership-windows-8

Note: This is a third-party link and we do not have any guarantees on this website. This is just for your convenience. And Microsoft does not make any guarantees about the content.

For decrypting the Bitlocker drives, we should unlock them firstly.

We should use the recovery key to unlock it. The recovery key for each encrypted drive is unique. Please ensure you are using the correct recovery key for this HD.

Best regards,

Yilia 

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_{Monday, January 21, 2019 9:31 AM}

Hi,

Is there anything I can do for you?

If you have any problems or concerns, please feel free to post here. 

Best regards,

Yilia

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_{Tuesday, January 22, 2019 4:24 PM}

I can see the files, everything on the drive, but when I try to open them, I get the message:

Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges (D:\..)

It was apparently encrypted with EFS.  It was encrypted through Bitlocker, but I decrypted while signed in to the network and Bitlocker.  All of my research leads me to believe that EFS is the issue, and the certificates are missing somehow when I changed my external drive to my new computer.  The old computer can't access the drive either.

_{Tuesday, January 22, 2019 4:25 PM}

I have no idea how to get a recovery key.  I've decrypted through bitlocker but it has no effect on the files.

_{Wednesday, January 23, 2019 9:13 AM}

Hi davidmisd,

According to your description, the files should be encrypted by EFS.

Please run command as an administrator and run “cipher /c “file path”” to get the certificate informantion of the files: Users who can decrypt and recovery certificate.

Then use this user account to log in, run certmgr.mgr to open certificate management, under "personal"，there will be the certificate.

Best regards,

Yilia 

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
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