Advanced EFS Data Recovery Listing updated: March 4, 2004

This program is used to recover (decrypt) files encrypted on NTFS (EFS) partitions created in Windows 2000/XP. Files can even be decrypted in a case where the system is not bootable and you are unable to log on, and/or some encryption keys (private or master) have been tampered with. Decryption is also possible when Windows is protected using SYSKEY. AEFSDR can decrypt the files protected under Windows XP and all versions of Windows 2000.

Company: ElcomSoft Co.Ltd.
URL: www.elcomsoft.com
Email: info@elcomsoft.com
Screenshot: click here
Price: $199

Users' Rating: 4.54 [24 votes] - Vote

Comments

June 5, 2006 - Trial version seems to work by Tim, Product Rating: 5/5: Some mysterious glitch required me to reset the password of my local user account in my Windows XP standalone system, i.e. NOT attached to a domain. While logged in as admin and resetting I got the prompt "Resetting this password might cause irreversible loss of information..." without explaining WHAT information would be lost. I figured it was talking about somthing stupid like my MSN Gaming preferences or the background color of the Outlook Express Pretty Flowers stationary, but no, it's talking about the encrypted folder that has every important file in it, and of course I've been meticulous to delete all non-encrypted copies of these files. Reset the password, can no longer open a single one of my essential files. And the MS web site explains how this is a "feature" in XP standalone mode, those recovery steps that I read about in my certification guides only work when attached to a domain...
AEFSDR to the rescue, maybe. The trial version seems to work, but it decrypts only the first 512 bytes of each file, so it's only noticable in plain text files. Opening .pdfs, for example, I only get errors. Now I just have to decide if I want to cough up the $100. Nice and easy-to-use wizard but it also seems to expose more sophisticated tools for sophisticated users, i.e. people other than me. \:*(
That just about does it for my experimentation with Windows EFS. A little message like "No, wait, go and back up the certificates first." would have been nice. I'm gonna check out that TrueCrypt open source project...
August 2, 2005 - Not Good as supposed to be by Jacon, Product Rating: 2/5: I have Windows XP Professional with SP2. AEFSDR is able to scan the private keys but not able to scan or browse the encrypted files.