External Hard drive, encrypted mp3s!

M

MavsX

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
1,086
Hey guys got a brain buster for ya...I have 14K mp3s on an external hard drive, that i can't copy to my desktop.

Maxtor - External 200GB HD; model # TA200E0038171

Files were dragged from desktop harddrive to Maxtor drive under my
computer. Files copied fine - no problems. On the Maxtor drive; the
music folder font is blue; when you open the folder, the artist folders
font is green, mp3 files font is green.

When I right click on a mp3 file and select properties then advanced, I
am unable to uncheck the encrypt box (shaded out but checked).

When I try to play the mp3 files from the MAXTOR drive, windows media
player opens up and give me this message(version 11): 'Windows Media Player cannot
access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to
the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not
be correct.'

I have tried to copy/paste the music folder to my desktop harddrive and
I get the error message: "Destination Folder Access Denied...You need
permission to perform this action", my options are to try again, skip,
or cancel. I press try again 15,000 times and the same screen comes
back up.

I have tried to change the ownership of files from
"S-1-5-21-1417001333-813497703-1343024091-1003' to 'ANDMITCH-PC' (my
computer's name).

Then I tried to play the music - no dice.

I hvave tried coping to vista, xp pro. a laptop and a couple different desktops.

What should i do?, the fate of 14,000 mp3s rest in your hands!
 
Did you encrypt them? Were they encrypted with Windows EFS? Or with a Maxtor tool? Or with something else?

If you didn't encrypt them, then...does the drive automatically encrypt things when it's written to the drive?
 
I think Windows did the encryption. I put all the music files in a
shared folder ("C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents") and then
under properties - general tab - then advanced - I selected 'encrpyt
contents to secure data'.
 
Okay, this is really important - did you encrypt these files in another install of Windows? If so - is that install still around somewhere?
 
The files were encrypted in windows on my old PC - BEFORE - I did the
reformat. I reformatted the harddrive, re-installed windows and other
applications.

So - the windows that encrypted the files is long gone - but I used the
same windows CD for both installs - if that counts for anything.
 
whenever i plug it into a new computer, i have been changing the ownership of those files...just so you know...
 
MavsX said:
The files were encrypted in windows on my old PC - BEFORE - I did the
reformat. I reformatted the harddrive, re-installed windows and other
applications.

So - the windows that encrypted the files is long gone - but I used the
same windows CD for both installs - if that counts for anything.
Click to expand...

Okay...I know you really don't want to hear this, but you're probably SOL. When you encrypted them on the old install, a set of keys were generated for encryption and decryption of data through EFS. This is the public/private key set. When you move files away from that install (or you're not that user), you can only access the data by using the private keyfile. However, since you reformatted that install, the private key has gone with it, and if you didn't ever back that up anywhere, you're out of luck.
 
Nope - I don't have the backup of that key file. But I think I have the
encryption code; is there a way to reverse encryption if you have
the code?
 
I read somewhere that if you transfer the files to a FAT32 drive that
the encryption is broken and removed. Is that possible??
 
MavsX said:
Nope - I don't have the backup of that key file. But I think I have the
encryption code; is there a way to reverse encryption if you have
the code?
Click to expand...

You must have the private key to decrypt (PPK encryption system) unless there is a known vulnerability against the EFS system. EFS uses a private key to decrypt the symmetric key that decrypts the data.

I have not heard of any other way to access EFS encrypted files if you do not have the private key. :(

MavsX said:
I read somewhere that if you transfer the files to a FAT32 drive that
the encryption is broken and removed. Is that possible??
Click to expand...

I have heard this - but I think the encrypted files just get converted to text (of the binary), so that doesn't do much for you either. You are welcome to try it however.
 
damn! well i appreciate your help my friend. i found this link...not sure if its worth it...i actually haven't even read about it, so im going to read the link now...

anyway thanks again

http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html

EDIT, cancel that..it says..as long as the keys are on the system somewhere...well being that the install is long gone...that wouldn't apply here...damnit.
 
wait would that matter...its on an external drive..i guess that could work right? transfer from ntfs to fat32....that would be worth doing a fresh install to get back 14K mp3s...

it was the good old days in college when nap ster was legal....or at least not in trouble
 
MavsX said:
wait would that matter...its on an external drive..i guess that could work right? transfer from ntfs to fat32....that would be worth doing a fresh install to get back 14K mp3s...

it was the good old days in college when nap ster was legal....or at least not in trouble
Click to expand...

If you have any free unpartitioned space, or are willing to resize a partition, you can try making a small partition to experiment with, without reinstalling windows.
 
thats true..i usually make my installs the full size as the disk....so no dice...
 
LOL i did that once... not a second time. in the future if you encrypt files with windows you can back up your keys to floppy. i don't remember how to do it, but there is a feature in there somewhere.
 
MavsX said:
thats true..i usually make my installs the full size as the disk....so no dice...
Click to expand...

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Use gparted to do a resize of the NTFS partition and create a FAT32 volume in the freed up space.

However, I will tell you that you shouldn't hope for much. If it were so easy to circumvent EFS, it'd have been pretty big news in security. I still think what happens is that since systems not using NTFSv5 are not EFS aware, they have no idea what the file is and it just becomes garbage (the encrypted file gets converted to text or something). However, I personally do not use EFS so I can not say for sure.

I wish you luck. :)
 
yeah its basically a loss.

Gparted! ah! My friend, i tried using that program, i burned it to a disc....a few months ago..screwed my system up bad....

long story short with that issue, i needed a different/updated sata driver...

gparted could be cool....its supposed to have a cool GUI, or at least the version i Downloaded...but it was all command line..and it was a bitch to figure out what to do...

anyway..thanks again for your input the past few days.
 
MavsX said:
yeah its basically a loss.

Gparted! ah! My friend, i tried using that program, i burned it to a disc....a few months ago..screwed my system up bad....

long story short with that issue, i needed a different/updated sata driver...

gparted could be cool....its supposed to have a cool GUI, or at least the version i Downloaded...but it was all command line..and it was a bitch to figure out what to do...

anyway..thanks again for your input the past few days.
Click to expand...

I'll boot up my system later tonight and try an experiment with EFS and FAT32 for you. Gives me a reason to boot up my home computer. :)
 
Microsoft says:
Recovering Encrypted Files

As you might imagine, using EFS presents some operational issues. You can lose access to encrypted files if you lose your EFS key or if you reset your password (password changes work fine, but password resets invalidate EFS keys). A recovery policy designates one or more user accounts to be recovery agents that can help in this situation. Recovery agents can access encrypted files. Windows 2000 mandates a recovery agent either locally or on the domain before you can encrypt files; Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 don’t have this requirement.

[...] Stand-alone Windows XP doesn’t create a default recovery agent (which eliminates a reason to try to conduct offline attacks against the Administrator account). On domain-joined computers running Windows 2000 or Windows XP with a domain EFS policy, the domain administrator is the default recovery agent.
Click to expand...

Here's a thread about someone else with the same problem.
if I read this right from your poster on the wall:
"If keys are archived, or exported, they can be imported to a new account."
recover the key from the drive (i.e. filerescue), import the key to your keyring, should be good to go.
Click to expand...

in light of this problem, I am going to edit my little domain's EFS policy.
 
Attempting to copy the files to a FAT32 parition isn't going to help as the files need to be *decrypted* using the private key before they can be written to a FAT32 filesystem.

Short answer - your SOL unless you have the encryption keys backed up somewhere.
 
SJConsultant said:
Attempting to copy the files to a FAT32 parition isn't going to help as the files need to be *decrypted* using the private key before they can be written to a FAT32 filesystem.

Short answer - your SOL unless you have the encryption keys backed up somewhere.
Click to expand...

Yep, my short test demonstrated this. No go.

The only way this works if is you were on the same install of XP (or had the encryption key imported to another install) and when you copy an encrypted file from NTFS to the FAT32, the system tells you encryption will be removed. However, for other users, copying is a no go.
 
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