Forum Discussion
EFS Certificate Lost After Format – Files Cannot Be Decrypted
Windows installation. I formatted Windows and copied the encrypted files to an external hard drive before formatting. After reinstalling Windows and signing in with the same Microsoft account ...
When you format your Windows partition and then restore encrypted files, the EFS (Encrypting File System) certificates and keys are typically stored in your user profile's certificate store. If these are lost or not restored, you won't be able to decrypt your files, even if the files themselves are intact.