Please help, data off old XP hard drive

[positivedoppler]

My old Window's XP computer died but the ide hard drive is still good. My problem is I stored all my old important stuff(such as a lifetime(2 years) of pictures of me and my wife) on the desktop. When I plugged in the hard drive into an external USB reader to download it to my new laptop, I get a permission error. I tried changing the permission but could not

Any ideas anyone?

[VirtualLarry]

boot a Linux OS distro "LiveCD" version.

You can download Ubuntu for free, burn it to a CD, and boot off of it.

Linux will read/write NTFS partitions, but doesn't pay attention to the permissions, that I have seen.


Next time, remember to back up!

[positivedoppler]

Thank you
I am downloading Ubuntu right now, wish me luck

[pete1229]

What OS is on the computer you are trying to transfer the files to? Usually all you need to do is log in as an administrator and take ownership of any files or folders you want to copy.

[VirtualLarry]

Don't choose to install it, just boot it and when the install choice comes up, click "TRY", not "INSTALL". It will take you to the desktop eventually, and then you can open up "Computer", and get to your HD.

[positivedoppler]

Thank you everyone for your help. I'm running Window's 7 from my laptop and connected my old desktop hard drive via USB using an external IDE reader. I use to dump all my stuff onto the desktop but when I tried clicking on the desktop folder it states access denied. The Ubunta trick did work, but it shows the desktop folder being empty..... I'm pretty sure my desktop wasn't empty.

[jjyiz28]

like others have posted you should be able to slave the drive and be able to access it. your wife by any chance didn't encrypt the folders/files did she?