Windows 10: How to find and enter encryption password to access old file history?

Hi, I have a Surface Book 1 running Windows 10 Pro and it wasn't running well so I wiped the drive yesterday and did a fresh install of Windows. I did it using a boot drive since: the built in reset options never worked, sfc always failed to finish and so did dism; all with absolutely no explanation as to why they failed. Anyways, during setup, I signed back in with the exact same Microsoft account.


I wanted to restore some important files so I plugged in my flash drive where I have my file history backed up. However, every single file is encrypted. I tried to take ownership of the file by making it a 'personal' file but I received an error '0x80071771: The specified file could not be decrypted' I assumed it was encrypted with my old C drive's bitlocker password my C drive is my only drive so it shouldn't be an issue because Ihave that password. However, now that I've done some research, it appears that the files are actually encrypted with an efs key? I'm pretty certain I never backed that key up anywhere because I don't remember encrypting my file history with anything.


I did a quick test after I reinstalled Windows where I encrypted a new, empty .txt file and Windows did prompt me to save an efs file but when I clicked on the notification, it just put a tiny icon hidden in the system tray which I completely didn't see for over an hour until I went to safely eject a drive. I assume the same thing must have happened when I set file history up years ago and must have completely not seen the tiny icon since Windows didn't automatically make it a window or do anything obvious. I hoped the key was saved to my Microsoft account like bitlocker keys are but, I don't see anything there for efs keys.


So, now my files are just sitting there encrypted and inaccessible. Is there any way to find that old efs file? If I do find it, how do I enter the key so I can decrypt the files? Please let me know if you need any other information and thank you.


P.S. I am kind of confused on how the file encryption process is suppose to work now. Why do I have efs if I already bitlocked my C drive? Are they the same thing? Why doesn't Windows make it obvious that there's a way to save the efs file?

:)

 

How to find and enter encryption password to access old file history?

Hi, I have a Surface Book 1 running Windows 10 Pro and it wasn't running well so I wiped the drive yesterday and did a fresh install of Windows. I did it using a boot drive since: the built in reset options never worked, sfc always failed to finish and
so did dism; all with absolutely no explanation as to why they failed. Anyways, during setup, I signed back in with the exact same Microsoft account.

I wanted to restore some important files so I plugged in my flash drive where I have my file history backed up. However, every single file is encrypted. I tried to take ownership of the file by making it a 'personal' file but I received an error '0x80071771:
The specified file could not be decrypted' I assumed it was encrypted with my old C drive's bitlocker password (my C drive is my only drive) so it shouldn't be an issue because I
have that password. However, now that I've done some research, it appears that the files are actually encrypted with an efs key? I'm pretty certain I never backed that key up anywhere because I don't remember encrypting my file history with anything.

I did a quick test after I reinstalled Windows where I encrypted a new, empty .txt file and Windows did prompt me to save an efs file but when I clicked on the notification, it just put a tiny icon hidden in the system tray which I completely didn't see
for over an hour until I went to safely eject a drive. I assume the same thing must have happened when I set file history up years ago and must have completely not seen the tiny icon since Windows didn't automatically make it a window or do anything obvious.
I hoped the key was saved to my Microsoft account like bitlocker keys are but, I don't see anything there for efs keys.

So, now my files are just sitting there encrypted and inaccessible. Is there any way to find that old efs file? If I do find it, how do I enter the key so I can decrypt the files? Please let me know if you need any other information and thank you.

P.S. I am kind of confused on how the file encryption process is suppose to work now. Why do I have efs if I already bitlocked my C drive? Are they the same thing? Why doesn't Windows make it obvious that there's a way to save the efs file?

 

Software encryption

You expect people smart enough to reset your password to have physical access to your computer and care enough at the same time to bother?

 

Software encryption

read this:
The Encrypting File System (EFS) is a file system driver with filesystem-level encryption available in Microsoft Windows (2000 and later) operating systems, except Windows XP Home Edition, Windows Vista Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium. The technology transparently allows files to be encrypted on NTFS file systems to protect confidential data from attackers with physical access to the computer.

User authentication and access control lists can protect files from unauthorized access while the operating system is running, but are easily circumvented if an attacker gains physical access to the computer. One solution is to store the files encrypted on the disks of the computer. EFS does this using public key cryptography, and aims to ensure that decrypting the files is in theory impossible without the correct key. However, EFS is in practice susceptible to brute-force attacks against the user account passwords. In other words, encryption of files is only as strong as the password to unlock the decryption key.

read more ...wikipedia Encrypting File System - Wikipedia