Windows 7 - Can't access files on old hard drive

Hi - not sure if someone has already asked this so please bear with.


Ran Win XP for years never had any issues till my motherboard failed last week. Went and bought a new tower with Win 7 Pro. I've installed the old hard drive into the new computer since it was still good and plenty of space left. More importantly i wanted to transfer some of the files to the new hard drive. - i intend to get an external after this i think - anyway - the old HD is being read - files are all there i just can't access them.

EG

previewing a picture in photoviewer...

"PV can't open picture because you don't have the correct permissions to access the file location."

a video...
"...proxy settings may not be correct."


I've tried doing the authorization and claiming the files but thats not working. i'm left with blank picture viewers.


Hard drive shouldn't be an issue as it is even the same make just 280 less space then the new 500G drive. And as i said - it is functioning.


Thoughts?

Just to add - the files i am trying to reach are the ones that i had locked in my user account on my old computer - i've found that other files i can access without issue - it's when i go into Documents and Settings / my user profile / that i cannot access.

any way around this?

i password protect my user account... since i didn't have a chance to undo that on my old computer before it died on me, anything that i saved within the realms of my docs and settings - in XP - so anything on my desktop is restricted because i'm not accessing it the same way.

i did manage to access files that were just on the hard drive - just not beyond E:/Docs and settings.

I'm having the same problem and can't seem to see anything in the folders of my old harddrive. I know the information is in there somewhere. I'd appreciate any help.