cracking windows xp's built in file encryption

i recently purchased a new harddrive for my computer but instead of using as a secondary harddrive, i wanted to just install windows to it and copy all of my saved data to the new harddrive. when i was in my days of experimenting with the ntfs file system, i encrypted (useing the built in encryption) several files.

it didn't affect my access to the files at the time and i never did infact decrypt the files (what can i say, i'm lazy)

now when i try to access the files in any way (i.e. copy, read, move) i get Access Denied

I read a story on zdnet a while back that breifely mentioned that the window xp encryption had been broken before xp was officially released.

If anybody knows how they did this, would they be able to link me to the info on how?

Do you have a Linux Distro. on the same box? The linux NTFS module ignores all permissions and stuff (but if the actual file is encrypted, I have no clue). Apparently you need to decrypt it on the same install of XP, and if you don't have it you're toast!

no linux here... i'm stuck with proprietary software (i.e. windows xp)

you don't know of perhapse a brute-force decrypter that runs from a boot disk to bypas windows' built in security measures, do you?

i tried looking on download.com but all i found was pgp stuff and a couple utils to decrypt pdf files

its doubtful MS would release a flagship operating system with the encryption broken.

check to make sure you have the permissions set correctly. logged on as admin you should be able to take ownership of any file on the hd and then fiddle.

i'll try the admin thing

I read an article and it confirms my thoughts. Once you throw away an XP installation, its key is lost forever. There is no known way [yet] to get around this. Perhaps we can find a bruteforcer SOMEWHERE on the net.