You can use the data recovery agent (DRA) to access the encrypted files. DRAs are implemented differently depending on the version of your operating system and the configuration of your computer.

For Windows 7 computers that are

• a part of a Windows Server 2008 Active Directory domain, the domain Administrator user account is automatically assigned the role of DRA.
• For Windows 7 computers that are installed as stand-alone computers or if the computer is a part of a workgroup, no default DRA is assigned.

If the DRA has the private key to the DRA certificate (that was created through Cipher /R:filename), the DRA can decrypt files in the same manner as the user who originally encrypted the file. After the encrypted files are opened by a DRA, they are available as unencrypted files and can be stored as either encrypted or unencrypted files.