Dark Atheist

well i have taken hard drives out of other pcs in the past and got peoples information from them - so i know for a fact it can be done, i have copied their programs, music, videos everything

roirraW "edor" ehT

I do all the time too. But almost 100% of the time I do it the accounts aren't passworded or encyrpted, and the other times I'm either using their password they gave me to enter their old account, or after having used Passware Key Enterprise to remove their passwords.

You are saying that you have definitely copied their data and that their documents were definitely passworded and encrypted?

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Dark Atheist

all the accounts had passwords on them yet i was still able to copy programs (backup) from c:\program files and copy the entire my documents folder, most people i know use truecrypt as their encryption and as long as you have the kefile or remember the pass they have never had problems moving files from one pc to the next or accessing their files after a reinstall

kcnychief

Windows passwords wouldn't really matter, but the fact of the issue is what level of encryption and what software did it - was it EFS (poop) or some 3rd party? There may be certificates, keys or other involved.

I wish we could just try it and find out already

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roirraW "edor" ehT

The Windows account only having a password on them (without using Windows' feature of hiding files) doesn't keep you from copying files from anyone's documents folder, it simply keeps you from logging in to that account and is the default behavior of putting a password on an account. I have tried to access someone's documents when they did have their files hidden and I wasn't able to access them. Likewise if they only have a password but without hiding their files I was still able to access their files from another account.

Windows passwords don't affect Program Files, only user accounts.

If the user was using a third-party encryption, Windows wouldn't care if you copied the files so it wouldn't stop you. You wouldn't even need the encryption key to do that, only to actually open the files.

I plan on performing some controlled environment tests in VMWare Workstation and get to the bottom of this.

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loaderbull

Hey peeps,

Just been reading this thread and this is what i have experienced in the past;

Putting a password on an XP installation only stops people from logging on to the machine on that computer. Adding a password and choosing to make your files 'private' (My Documents) encrypts the files, so if someone were to take that Hard Drive out and attach it to another machine to access files, the My Documents folder will be inaccessible to you. Also logging on to that computer with another user name does not let you view files in My Documents.

This is using XP's built in encryption and password methods, not 3rd party software.

Only my own personal experience, but thought i would add it to help, or to confuse even more!

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