How to Acces Encrypted Files on a External Hard Drive

If it was the backup program that did the encrypting you could call the manufacturer and ask them what the default key is.

NO I think windows was set to do it and I wasn't aware of it at the time

Sorry, can't help you. I don't trust Windows with something as important as backup.

how is it that you own the laptop and the external hard drive and you "didn't know they were encrypted"?

if the EHD isn't yours, you can ask the owner. if it is yours, call the EHD's vendor or manufacturer. BTW, what are the EHD's specs?

I agree with you, it could be that "someone" is trying to gain access illegally to data (stolen?)........

If the OP actually encrypted them, surely he also knows the password and can open them using XP (re-installed XP)!

First, scan the files for virus.

Are they actual XP operating system files, copied from the original set up disk, or a collection of XP OS files copied off your HDD? What is the3 extension on the file(s)? *.ex; dll, css, flx etc.

You will either need the original disk or copy the files onto your HDD and open them from there. Backing up OS files won't do any good because you need the access codes from the original disk - see cracking XP OS postings on software websites.

regards

Don't take offense by the suspicions, these type of things happen to me all the time. Failed backups, I mean. But don't let it turn you off. This site and its people are great and helpful individuals. Otherwise they wouldn't be on this forum, they would be out using their time and technical skills either to make or to steal more money. Frankly, this site could accidentally be used to help arm the next Uni-Bomber and it would still have a meaningful and net-positive place in our new, increasingly complex world. I think the conjecture is caused by either profiling (against us non-techies) or by the lack of details with which to assess your situation. We need more data~!

My own ignorant hunch, for instance, is that either:

1) You copied the OS right along with your data and document files, and Microsoft put it all in a format you can't access. Afterall, they do only allow the one disk 'copy' of their OS, so why would they make it easy to copy it? Did you do a mass cut and paste or point the backup software to your C-drive or what? Specifically, I mean.

2) The backup software took it upon itself to apply one of your many software or even system passwords, and the files aren't really encrypted. If they're just locked, one of the hacker sites can help you for sure. Of course if you were a PC-snatching hoodlum you'd know this. But if your files truly are encrypted and you were off getting coffee while the key was being flashed at you, then unless you're a very good PC-snatching hoodlum I think you are hosed..

I've got it! One of our more jaded fellows can back-up, delete and then try to recover their whole system. At least we'd know the issue was replicable, right? Might help boost the level of empathy, too..

Sorry, that was a bad joke.

Anyway, mostly I'm sorry that we haven't been more helpful yet. Don't give up yet.

I haven't put much though in to what those guys barked out,that's there opinion which didn't amount to much as far as being helpful. Life to short to let stuff like that pull you down.

No what happen was my computer started acting strange,so I backed up my personal files to a external HD and when I went load them back up thats when I found out I had a problem, But win a few and lose a few thats part of life.

Thank all of you for your time Sam

hi snewsome,

as in any forum, don't be offended when you're asked for more details - getting irritated doesn't help. if you'd called any technical call center, you'd be battered with questions, just the same. it'll help if you'd give more specifics about the situation, such as what you've just disclosed.

so apparently you executed a Windows backup procedure to your external drive.

after re-installing *the same* OS, go to Control Panel. Open "Backup and restore..." and proceed from there. note that this is on a WinVISTA Home Premium. an equivalent app should be in XP, I believe.

Hello snewsome,

This situation does often occur when "we"; me included, have waited until problems are recognized to begin backup procedures.

Sometimes because of a corruption issue on the original drive/install, the backup will not produce your desired result. It may display as an encryption issue, at this point you need access those files, don't throw in the towel yet.

Please describe your system and the method which you conducted the backup thoroughly; be very simple, so we may proceed...

How do you "back the files up"? Copy them from harddrive to external? Using a backup program? Is the external drive with NTFS?

I purchased an external USB hard drive last year and when plugged in for the first time to my PC, it immediately popped up a dialogue box asking some basic information about whether I wanted to set up automatic back-up for either of the hard drives it found, or to be more exact about particular folders.

I chose my "\Documents and Settings" folder only, under my login account, but the effect would likely have been the same. It "did it's thing" for months, and I heard it whirring-away over on the shelf all the time, feeling more secure in the knowledge that my data was being backed-up.

Weeks ago, I had a power surge that killed my boot partition on my hard-drive, and I have already bought a new LARGER hard-drive that I had meant to install anyway, so I used this chance.

I then 'browsed' the newly plugged-back-in EHD and found...a bunch of dated folders ful of what looked like encrypted, renamed files called such things as "026836356" with no extension, and which would not 'open' by double-clicking, though I had no way of knowing if any particular file was a backed-up .doc, .dll, or .dwg.

What I had to do was browse back to the root of the EHD and find a folder that came preloaded on the drive, that included a backup utility program. I had to manually find the setup executable, double-click, and allow it to install on my new hard-drive. apparently this had happened automatically in the background the first time I had plugged it in.

The files were not truly "encrypted," they had simply been saved over and over when changed, renaming them and keeping reference to them in a proprietary File Allocation Table-type database, and it required the EHD-installed software to get the files to be "recovered" back to my new hard-drive. Being and engineer, I looked around and located a backed-up folder of such files that looked like the sizes and grouping of photos, I experimented by renaming all files in the folder with '.jpg' and lo-and-behold, they were viewable.

By the way...such software appears to leave users providing review feedback convinced there is a possibly Microsoft-caused problem with backing up the operating system (and installed software?) in a way that allows it all to be 'recovered' to a new hard-drive. It may only 'recover' such files back to the original hard drive, and only when the OS is already basically intact, as far as I can tell.

If you happen to have a Western Digital, you can get the latest version of that backup software on their website, like this one: