File Permissions Problem

[Mel]

I am using XP with Office 2003. I posted my question to the Word Discussion
Group and was advised to post elsewhere for better results. Here I am.

Question/Problem:
On my C drive, I changed the "Properties" of a few Excel and Word documents
to "Encrypt Data to Secure Contents" by right clicking on the desired file,
selecting properties, selecting advanced, selecting encrypt data to secure
contents. I copied those files from my C drive to an external NTFS formatted
drive. Shortly thereafter, my CPU hard drive crashed. I got a new
computer, connected the same external drive to the new machine and tried to
open those encrypted files, but cannot. The message I receive when
attempting to open the files is "Excel (or Word) cannot open (name of file
here). The document may be read only or encrypted." I cannot change the
file properties to remove the encryption. Are my files lost forever?

 

[Harlan Grove]

I am using XP with Office 2003. I posted my question to the Word Discussion
Group and was advised to post elsewhere for better results. Here I am.

Question/Problem:
On my C drive, I changed the "Properties" of a few Excel and Word documents
to "Encrypt Data to Secure Contents" by right clicking on the desired file,
selecting properties, selecting advanced, selecting encrypt data to secure
contents. I copied those files from my C drive to an external NTFS formatted
drive. Shortly thereafter, my CPU hard drive crashed. I got a new
computer, connected the same external drive to the new machine and tried to
open those encrypted files, but cannot. The message I receive when
attempting to open the files is "Excel (or Word) cannot open (name of file
here). The document may be read only or encrypted." I cannot change the
file properties to remove the encryption. Are my files lost forever?

Hate to pass the buck again, but this is something you're going to
have to ask about in a Windows XP newsgroup. It's possible but VERY
unlikely anyone following any of the Office newsgroups would know
enough about OS-level encryption to provide reliable guidance.

Unfortunately, Microsoft makes it rather difficult to switch from
Office newsgroups to Windows newsgroups. So here's a url to the main
Windows Community site.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx