Text & Word files gibberish after encryption of folder

I have a specific folder that I put certain notepad and wordpad files in. I encrypted only this specific folder (and its subfolders) a few days ago and everything was well.

But today after I went and double checked a txt file in the encrypted folder, I found all the files were gibberish and unreadable , everything in the folder. Nothing else outside the folder was affected. I tried to decrypt it and still no change.

Is there anyway to read those files again?

Oh yes, Not sure what its called, efs? The one where you right click a folder : Properties>Advanced>"encrypt contents to secure data"

Note. Last substantial thing I remember doing before this problem was a Disc Cleanup & Defrag, if it matters.

Yes I have it, also have it backed up.
How do I use it in this situation?

mitchell65 said:

Not sure as I don't have the Ultimate version but will look into it later. Meantime you might try a system restore to before you did the disc clean. Doubtful as system restore doesn't affect data files but worth a try!

Brink said:

Hello Kymira,

The tutorial below can help show you how to import your EFS certificate that you had when you encrypted those files back to then be able to hopefully read the encrypted files.

Encrypted File System (EFS) Certificate Restore

Hope this helps, :)
Shawn

@mitchell65 Cant sys restore, seems I didnt create any restore points.

@Brink I tried restoring the Cert following the steps in the link you provided. Nothing Changed.

Is this folder corrupted? How do you guys think this happened?

No this was the only copy. It could've been alot worse, at-least they weren't that important. Lesson learned for next time.

thanks for helping.

edit. I encrypted a "dummy" folder with dummy txt files yesterday to see If I get any similar results.
At first they fine and legible but after going back and checking them now (24hrs later), the contents in that folder are also corrupted.