TSGL: encryption question

[Craig]

I received this email from a family member,

I have some protected files (mainly my pictures and home videos) on my 
external hard drive, then I had to reformat my hard drive but I forgot 
to unprotect these files on my external.  Now I can't open these files.  
How can I unprotect them?  I know there has to be a way! it's on a usb, 
it's a seagate. I just used the regular windows protection. for 
instance, many of the files are .jpg, so I right click on the file, then 
properties, then I click attributes: advanced, then encrypt contents to 
secure data. sometimes I have access to the details button which shows 
who has access to the file. my old computer name and certificate are 
listed from before the reformat. now my certificate is a totally 
different number (I checked). anyway, what can I do? all of emma's 
beautiful pictures are frozen!


Am I right by telling her that they are lost? It's XPSP2