On my old laptop, haven’t used it in probably 3 years at least, I had some sensitive tax files in a folder that I locked and made hidden with a program called Folder Lock. I had those on this laptop and somehow they’ve gone missing. Could have sworn I backed them up but can’t find them.
So I thought, OK, I’ll see if my old laptop will boot, and it did. (SOOO slow - slow hard drive, Windows 7.) Couldn’t find the folder, remembered Folder Lock,
Well, I remember the key sequence to start Folder Lock, but the first password I tried didn’t work. Nor did the second one. I was trying hard to remember what really good password I used (one that I would remember but wasn’t my everyday password) and for the life of me I can’t remember it.
So - I can’t unlock my folder. Folder Lock is secure enough it will only apparently uninstall with their uninstall program, with the serial code as the password (I think.) Or the master password I chose. It also works in Safe Mode. I can’t find the email with the serial number when I bought it.
I need some help because I NEED that folder with some info that is now important for taxes!
To expand on what worked - I used my Folder Lock serial number as the password, unlocked the folder with my old tax data, then uninstalled Folder Lock (you could only uninstall once getting past the password.) Rebooted, and there was the folder.
Unfortunately, for some reason the folder was empty. At that point I used an undelete to see if I could find it. I d/led one, it worked very well, and there were the files. But to recover all of them they wanted you to pay for a registered copy.
Found Recova (or something like that) - Freeware and worked perfectly.
Doing a fresh backup of everything on my current laptop again this afternoon. ;)
lol whut? I looked briefly at Folder Lock and they claim encryption, but there is no way what you describe would have worked if it was actually using encryption.
Maybe they use encryption now and your old version didn’t, who knows - glad you got your data back. I would stay far, far away from that software if you actually expect it to protect data. On the flip side, if it was even halfway competent you would not have been able to recover that data so /shrug
Folder Lock looks pretty amateur hour, a security theatre kind of program. A serial number as a backdoor is pretty stupid. If there’s a chance you’re going to forget the pass phrase/key (and many of us forget things easily so there’s no shame) you should write it down and secure it physical in meatspace somewhere.
Yeah, I think Folder Lock is targeted more at keeping casual/amateurs from seeing your data. It certainly isn’t TrueCrypt (was that their name?)
For me, I traveled with that laptop and just didn’t want someone who might have snagged it at, say, an airport, to see that there was a TaxData folder and what was in it. I.e. to protect from the amateur snatch and grab kind of person who would likely simply scan through what was on the laptop.
