Re: Help with encryption key in Word 2007

No such luck.

At this point, I have also finally received a call from the folks that
recovered the data. They walked me through making the encryption keys I found
work. I must also report no success with their methods either. They maintain
the files are not corrupt.

So the soap opera continues.

For those in the future who are in a similar boat note the following:

If you have an issue with encrypted documents, then double click on the .pfx
file to import into your PC. In theory, this should work. It is working for
my data recovery folks, but not for me!

More as the situation ripens..........

"Terry Farrell" wrote:

For a test to see if this is your installation of Office or if it is
something else corrupting the doc files, download the free Word Viewer from
Microsoft and see if that will open the doc files.

Terry

"robert" <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:080AC729-1E21-4901-A99D-F9AA7DC3E4A0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
They report no problems whatsoever

"Terry Farrell" wrote:

Can the sister company that uploaded the docs to the web store open them
still?

Terry

"robert" <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:70BF06D4-3E34-4CE9-828A-84F34BF25AFC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello Terry:

No is guessing, these keys were found by searching all the files that
have
migrated from Computer A to Computer B. Computer B had the HDD crash.
Both
A
and B were running XP Pro, and Office XP. I searched for and found two
keys,
with a .pfx extension, and was told by Kroll/Ontrack that these were
the
encryption keys I needed, as they are related to each HDD from each of
the
computers here known as A & B.

My current computer, known here as Vista Business Nightmare (I'll play
nice
and not go off on THAT tangent) runs Office 2007 and is the one I am
trying
to open these recalcitrant files with.

The files I am referring to (Word Docs in 99% of the cases) do not open
in
Wordpad correctly, will not open correctly with Open > Repair. I could
not
find a recover text option.

And now, for the best part. My business shares Word Docs with a sister
business via a web based storage solution. Lately, as in the last day
or
two,
many of the files uploaded by our sister company are now going to
gobbledygook too. For the last 2 years we have shared docs in this
fashion
with nary a hitch in the git along, but now we have this to deal with
too.
I
queried the person in charge of uploading the files to see if they were
doing
anything different, and they are not. I have at this point no reason to
doubt
this, as they have not changed the method, nor the software nor for
that
matter the PC used.

Hey, what a day, eh?

"Terry Farrell" wrote:

Most bizarre. No one can 'guess' an encryption key - if they are
really
sure
that it is encrypted. The last time at looked at desktop security for
an
HP
notebook, the encryption was done using an HP tool and was dependant
on
the
hard drive serial number that is indelibly written to the hard disk.
This
stops anyone from copying the encrypted files to another drive to read
them.

Terry

"robert" <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1D9F3944-7140-4D70-B255-BE35E8C8B266@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello Terry Thank you for taking the time to respond.

I will try your suggestions and report back, when I get into the
office
in
a
little while.

The HDD was sent to Kroll Ontrack Data Recovery Services. After
initial
eval, it was determined that there was recoverable data, about 66%
is
what
I
got back.

The files were copied by Kroll onto a USB Drive, and shipped to me.
There
are files that open just fine, and others that go with the
gobbledygook.
The
date the file was last opened or modified seems to have an impact on
whether
or not they are readable. The dates on the two encryption keys are
also
in
rough timing with the behavior as well.

Kroll Ontrack is of the opinion the encryption keys are,well, key to
this.
Their tech Dept has repeatedly promised to call and explain how to
use
the
keys to end this mess. This "miracle" call has not arrived in 3
weeks,
and
I
cannot seem to find anything on the subject on the webz, hence my
post
here.

But first I will try your suggestions, and then we'll know more.



"Terry Farrell" wrote:

When it asks you select the encoding, it isn't meaning that it has
been
deliberately encoded as in encryption. What it means is that Word
does
not
recognise the format and needs some help. However, what it really
indicates
is that the document files are corrupt. There are several possible
solutions
but probably they have been totally trashed from your description.

First, open Word and use File, Open to select a document and then
use
the
Open and Repair option.

If that fails, again select the file and chose the Recover Text
from
any
File option.

If that fails, try opening the document in WordPad.

If that fails, they are definitely blown.

How were the files recovered from the broken HDD?

--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP

"robert" <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4DD0B8FD-76EA-42FC-A0E0-A655A66C7292@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have had 2 PC's running XP Pro prior to the current Vista
Business
Nightmare one. On each, I created Word Docs, some which were
saved
to a
networked location (no domain). Others were saved on the local
hard
drive
of
each computer.
When the hard drive failed on the Vista Nightmare PC, and I
recovered
the
files, they are now mostly unreadable. I am asked what type of
encoding
I
wish to use, with no choice bringing up anything but gobbledygook
(I
had
to
look up the spelling on that one!).

I did manage to find 2 encryption keys, and copied them to a
thumb
drive.

Now how do I de crypt these files?




.

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