Windows 10: My computer is asking for a recovery key. I have encrypted files I can not access and I...

I can not access files on my older computer as they have been encrypted. My computer is asking for a recovery key which I don’t have. How do I recover my files?

:)

 

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

 

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?

 

Help accessing encrypted files (Error: 0x80071771: The specified file could not be decrypted)

Hi DesignerJo0314,

EFS or Encrypting File System on Windows is designed to protect your confidential data from threats or attackers that have access to your computer. Once a file is encrypted, a recovery key or certificate is required to access
it on a different device. This means that the file can only be accessed on the same machine and same user account it was encrypted to.

Here are the ways on how to access the encrypted file on a different computer or user profile:

1. Decrypt the file before moving it to the new computer. You can encrypt the file to the new user profile once the transfer is complete.
   
2. Move the encrypted file to the new computer including the certificate or key.

Apparently, the only way to access the encrypted file on your new computer is to have the certificate or key. If you still have the old laptop, you can try to connect the hard drive to your new computer and decrypt the file.

Feel free to post back if you have other questions.