Patent ID: 7634521

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: determining a file path of an inaccessible source file, a contents of said inaccessible source file being stored as raw data at one or more locations on a physical disk of a host computer system; automatically determining said one or more locations on said physical disk at which said raw data composing said inaccessible source file is located, each of said one or more locations including at least a portion of said raw data composing said inaccessible source file, wherein said automatically determining said one or more locations on said physical disk at which said raw data composing said inaccessible source file is located comprises: automatically accessing a Master File Table (MFT) Record associated with said inaccessible source file; and automatically determining said one or more locations of said raw data composing said inaccessible source file from said MFT record; automatically creating an accessible target file; automatically generating a copy of said raw data of said inaccessible source file in said accessible target file; and automatically accessing said copy of said raw data of said inaccessible source file in said accessible target file, wherein said raw data of said inaccessible source file is encrypted data, and further wherein said copy of said raw data of said inaccessible source file in said accessible target file is encrypted data, said method further comprising: automatically decrypting said copy of said raw data of said inaccessible source file from said accessible target file to generate unencrypted data.