I figured I'd place this up in DLP on the odd chance I'll get an answer from someone about it. It's been a pain in my ass for a while now.

I know that in order in to decrypt files you have to do it from the hard drive that did it, unfortunately the hard drive I had that did that crapped the bed and I can't do anything with it. I can still access it if I put in a working hard drive and go to My Computer through that but that's all I can do.

Is it possible for me to access my old hard drive through a new one in order to decrypt the files I'd like to open?

 

How was the old hard drive damaged?

 

I'd say it was old, I think...maybe 3-5 years old? I can barely remember yesterday.

It would have it's problems, then I'd patch it up and it would be okay for a while and the process would repeat. If I try to load it now it'll say something along the lines of unable to load or crashed, I think it says Disk Drive something. I'd have to open my computer up, find the hard drive, and put it in to tell you specifically.

 

Which encryption tool did you use? Bitlocker? Wave? TrueCrypt? RSA?
What is the likelihood you created a backup of the private keys?
Have you tried imaging the failed drive to another drive using a method which supports deep scanning or forensic duplication of the drive, such as OSFClone, Ghost or Acronis? If you do attempt to do this, have a drive cooler or some other method of providing significant cooling to the drive while performing this to prevent thermal issues (dry ice would NOT be an option).

 

I used the one built in Windows XP.
Doubtful.
I have not, as I have no idea what that is or how to do it. If I did what would work best and do I have to buy anything? I'm dirt ass broke right now and everything I make goes to paying for my shared cellphone bill and to a car.