Microsoft Private Folder - Cracking it?
 

The other day I had some corrupt windows files and had to reformat. In order to backup my files, I accessed the harddrive through an Ubuntu Live CD and migrated all my files to my external. I have some of my files in Microsoft Private Folder 1.0, a password protected folder that encrypts the contents when the password has not been successfully entered. Since I couldn't start windows and move a decrypted version of the files, I decided I would copy the encrypted files from Ubuntu and back them up in hopes that there would be some way to unscramble them. I now have XP installed again and would really like to get back to these files, is there any way?

It seems you're out of luck, as you've reformatted already and that user account is irretrievably lost. Unless you backed up the encryption keys.

How to decrypt Windows XP encrypted files : decrypt, xp, windows, files, encrypted

Where would the encryption keys be...?

Also, it looks like I can't access that sites "solution" without handing out my credit card number. Thanks for replying Zergrinch.

The first time you visit, you can see the solution right at the bottom of the page. :p

In order to have the encryption keys ready, you should have done the following steps on your old computer (source):

1. Start Microsoft Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3. On the Content tab, in the Certificates section, click Certificates.
4. Click the Personal tab.
5. There may be several certificates present, depending on whether you have installed certificates for other purpose.
6. Select one certificate at a time until the Certificate Intended Purposes field shows Encrypting File System. This is the certificate that was generated when you encrypted your first folder.
7. Click Export to start the Certificate Export Wizard, and then click Next.
8. Click Yes, export the private key to export the private key, and then click Next.
9. Click Enable Strong protection, and then click Next.
10. Type your password. (You must have a password to protect the private key.)
11. Specify the path where you want to save the key. You can save the key to a floppy disk, another location on the hard disk, or a CD. If the hard disk fails or is reformatted, the key and the backup will be lost. (If you back up the key to a floppy disk or CD, you must store that disk or CD in a secure location.) Specify the destination, and then click Next

If I use My Private Folder to encrypt something again and use the same password I used before, will the encryption keys be the same? Can I reproduce them?

Not if the encryption scheme is worth its salt. (oh, ho ho)

Its more likely that at the time of encryption, a generated salt is combined with the pass-phrase to produce the final key (or key-pairs in the case of asymmetric encryption) for ciphering. This means that encrypting the same data with the exact same pass-phrase will result in two completely different outputs and prevents the use of rainbow-table attacks in the event that someone should get a hold of your encrypted data.

The bottom line is that if you cannot recover the keys that were generated at the time of encryption, you are SOL.