What's wrong with EFS?
When I encrypt files using EFS, they are fine until I shutdown/startup the system. After shutdown/startup, the files appear to contain corrupted data--all scrambled hieroglyphic symbols and such. The disk is fine (it's brand new and tested). I can access/open
the files, but the contents have turned into garbage. I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit on an HP dv7 (Core i7) Notebook.
Note that I could open encrypted files on my Server 2008 machine remotely from the laptop and the data was good; and, I could open the encrypted files on the laptop remotely from my Server 2008 machine and the data appeared normal! However, when I look at
the encrypted files on the Win7 laptop locally, the data appears scrambled.
Is this a Windows 7 bug? Or, is there something I can do to solve this?
Dave Kelly
June 17th, 2010 10:31am
I'm happy to report that I've finally found out what was causing the problem:
Comodo Antivirus Free x64 version 4.0.135239.742 running on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit causes data corruption of EFS encrypted files.
I found this after reading a posting at another security forum by someone who was having exactly the same problem, but reported that it was being caused by Symantec anti-virus software. I have used only Comodo anti-virus and my system is completely clean
of anti-virus software from any other vendors. So, I removed the Comodo anti-virus software, and sure enough, the problem has gone away. I have been through a dozen shutdown/restarts now and have had no further corruption of EFS encrypted files since I removed
the Comodo anti-virus software.
I hope this helps somebody else too.
Dave Kelly
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July 1st, 2010 3:13am