Windows 10: I've lost all my files to encryption after transfer and fresh boot

I could really use someones help here, I'm on the verge of panic.

I was running windows 10 but I decided to do a fresh install of windows 7 pro. So i backed up all of my files onto a 500gb passport type portable drive. Now after the transfer, both the files on my PC and the hard drive are showing as green. which after some research means they could be encrypted.

I've tried everything I've found online to be able to open them, including going onto properties and advanced, changed the permissions and unchecked the Encrypt box ( it was never checked) and they're still un-accessible.

I know a far bit about computers but I truly have no idea what to do?

Are my files gone forever? I don't want to believe I've lost 100gb of memories, I would be forever grateful if somebody could get this sorted for me.

Thankyou *Smile

:)

 

Computer freezes randomly. I'm using bitlocker and eDrive.

It was a fresh install of Windows. It's been driving me nuts, but I think I've tracked down the problem to a faulty secondary drive (not the one encrypted). Odd because the problem only happened after the boot drive was encrypted (and I fresh installed
Windows 10 about 7 times over two days testing this theory), but now that I've removed the faulty secondary drive, the problem seems to have disappeared. If I experience more crashes, I will update this.

 

Windows 10 Pro - How do I disable encryption of my data

I have a desktop, which lives at home and which has no sensitive or private files on it, only photographs, music and films. Therefore, I do not need to encrypt my hard disks, and in fact with encryption there is the risk of the keys getting lost and being
unable to access the files later on.

I was therefore surprised to find that my fresh install (not upgrade from 8.1) was encrypting my data, and urging me to back-up the encryption keys. I absolutely do not want my data encrypted - how do I turn it off, and decrypt if necessary whatever data
has already been encrypted?

There is no indication of what data is being encrypted, the desktop has three HD and accesses a NAS. The desktop also has four users. Is every user's data being encrypted?, all the hard disks?

 

This is a classic example of why to have a cloud backup. I use "Backup and Sync" from Google for desktop. It works great. Now you have a hard copy on your PC and a cloud backup.

On to your issue. Can you connect the portable drive to another PC and see if the images are accessible there?

 

Having used My Passport... could be your problem.
Western Digital's hard drive encryption is useless. Totally useless • The Register

Apps Tab
The Apps tabs displays the list of WD applications included in the WD Discovery
suite and a number of third party applications created by other companies and
organizations. The WD applications include:
▪ WD Backup: makes backing up your personal
files,
photos, videos and music
simple and easy
▪ WD Drive Utilities: allows you to keep your drive performing at its best, and
includes sleep, health, RAID settings, and drive erase features
▪ WD Security: implements password protection and the 256-bit hardware data
encryption capabilities of your supported WD hard drive
https://www.wdc.com/content/dam/wdc/...779-705155.pdf

I stick to Hitachi and Toshiba disks... hopefully someone who is familiar with these can help, assuming this underlies your problem.


(@Plankton: Cloud backup might be ok for some things, but often upload speeds preclude this for larger data volumes).

 

@dalchina - I was basing my suggestion based off the attachment provided....that they were are image files.

 

100gb to upload... about 31 hrs at my 9Mb/s upload speed..

@Scintards - exactly how did you back up the data?

 

Hey guys, There's photos/videos and other files in there, lots of folders. I used a Buffalo HD-PV500U2 500gb hard drive, I know I should've used a cloud based software but wouldn't it be nice if we all had the power of hindsight haha.

It's definitely something the portable hard drive has done because it's the same on my other pc, I'll give it a go on my laptop now and see if I get any different results.

I'll report back!

 

I've never heard of that brand before. Your assumption may be right.....I would check with Buffalo support for an explanation on how to rectify this.

 

I can confirm it does not work on my laptop either, This is what I think has happened, I could be wrong but the hard drive has automatically encrypted the files (for safety reasons) which are only accessible by the user who transferred the files onto it. so when I did a fresh install to windows 7 pro, I have now lost access to them. I think I've well and truly screwed myself her lads.

 

Okay so when I plugged it back into my main PC, I chose the option to Import files rather than just explore them, I can actually see the thumbnails of the lost photos now so I'm being hopeful that I've somehow fixed it! Fingers crossed.

 

It may be a matter of using the software associated with the drive configured with the appropriate key, password or whatever it is.

 

Okay, didn't work, I think it's safe to say the're gone.

 

Have you tried installing the buffalo software, if you have and can remember the password you should in theory be be able retrieve the files?

Edit:

Found the manuals suggest if you haven't got one you download from Buffalo here: HD-PCU2 : MiniStation™ click downloads, need to read slm.pdf in particular the part about using on a different PC

 

Agreed.

Unless you have a ridiculous Internet upload speed, 100 GB is going to take days.

I once uploaded a 1 GB video (TAFE project) and it took ~6 hours.