Issues Transferring Ownership Of Old HDD Via USB Enclosure

So ive been having a very frustrating week trying to get info off of my old drive. Im currently running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on my new SSD. What happened was about 2 weeks ago I started noticing signs of my drive failing. I had most everything backed up but not my app data and other user folders and files. I bought a new SSD and did a fresh install of windows. By the time I did this my old drive stopped booting into windows entirely. The old drive was running Windows 10. I put it inside of an external USB enclosure to get the remaining data. I could easily access most everything on the drive except the User folders. Which is the only thing I need. When I clicked continue it kept saying that I was denied access. Having never had to do this before I googled the issue and spent about 3 days trying all the different ways to transfer ownership. It got admittedly insanely confusing to the point where I started to worry that if I messed it up I could lose access permanently and I decided to stop and post on here to get advice about my specific situation. The farthest I got was going to the security and owner tabs and going through the process of trying to transfer ownership of all the sub folders of my username to my current PC. It would get a few minutes into the process and say it couldn't find files because they didn't exist or something like that. I put it on hold because I didn't want to ruin my chances of getting the data. I currently have an HD here from my sisters computer that she needed the data of of as well. So I thought id take another shot with it. Her data wasn't very important to her so I figured it would be a good chance to learn. I put her HD inside the enclosure and plugged it in. When I went to her user folders I clicked continue and this time it actually let me into the folders and I could see every single file in every folder. So I tried to copy them to my other external and it said the files didn't exist. I tried to transfer ownership and again, same problem I had with mine. Now I can't get into those folders on her drive anymore as it tells me I was denied access exactly like my old HD is doing.

Im now more confused than ever. I apologize if I put this in the wrong place as this is my first time posting. Ive got years worth of App data on my old drive I would be overjoyed to get back and it would be cool as well to know how to get my sisters data back for her.

Given my current situation.. is there any easy way to get the files back? I know there on the drive. It's maddening knowing they're there and not being able to get them back yet. Is there a sure thing step by step I possibly missed online that would work in my situation? Any alternative ways of getting the info off? Ive never had this much trouble with anything on windows before in my life and im pulling my hair out over it. PLEASE HELP!

Add "Take Ownership" to Context Menu of Files, Folders, and Drives in Windows

Then you only need right click and select Take Ownership from the Context Menu

First of all thanks sooo much for responding! Second thanks just as much for the context menu suggestion as either way this is a much mroe simple way and I wish I had known about it the whole time. My only issue is that im running it right now.. and it's not finished.. but I can see about half of the entries it tries to change in the command come up saying "info: this system can't find path specified". Which is the problem I seemed to be having before. Only this time this was a million times easier and hasn't left me pulling out my hair. Any clue as to why it would show this for for so many items? I can see it will go through chunks of files and say that it was a success.. but about half of the entries as far as I can tell(it's moving extremely fast and hard to read) show as this system can't find path specified. I clicked take ownership of my entire user folder(just my admin user account not the others)..

Again it's not finished yet.. so im not to sure whats going to happen when it is finished. But it has me nervous that it's not going to work with this error showing on so many files. Could it have something to do with the already failed attempts of taking ownership ive already tried? I hope I didn't mess it up. I should have posted here to begin with but I don't like to bug people until ive tried and failed miserably.

If that does not work try using a live Linux USB. I use Linux Mint but any of them will do. When ever I want to delete a file or folder and Windows tells me "You do not have permission" I just pop that in and delete it. It should work with copying files too. I made one about two years ago and keep it around for just such reasons.

I had a friend's computer that would not boot. I used it to copy all his personal files to a portable hard drive.

Thanks for the reply! I left it overnight and it finished. But I clicked on continue while trying to enter the user file this time and it blue screened and restarted. Then I unplugged the USB and plugged it back in when it restarted and tried to click again and it's on an endless hourglass on that folder and won't do anything. Driving me crazy. Ill leave it for a bit to see what happens. But I actually had thought about the idea of doing that. But can I boot from a live USB without effecting my current operating system? Ive never done it before so I don't know how it works. Thats what stopped me from trying it mostly.

Also whats the lightest/easiest to navigate linux? Guess I could just just go straight to mint since it worked for you.

Yes you can boot from a live Linux USB and it will not effect your operating system. Linux Mint is pretty much like Windows 7. I don't think you will have any problem using it.

Before you do anything make a backup of your entire hard drive just in case you do run into problems. I don't think you will but you never know.

This is the download website for Linux Mint. I used the Mate desktop 32bit. I read somewhere that it was good for the live version of Linux. You can try any one you like.

https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

This is the program I used to make the USB.

Universal USB Installer ? Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

Thanks so much! I did it before your response so I used ubuntu. It had an option to try the OS without installation. My plan was to use the along side my operating system option but this worked even better. I got the files and I can finally relax lol. Thanks again. I gotta say for my first round at a linux OS im really into it. I use far to many PC programs to switch obviously but I might install it to dual boot anyway for certain tasks. So clean and so great. It recognized all my hardware. Never been able to do a windows install on this computer without downloading half the drivers again. Ive got a netbook I was forced to upgrade to windows 7 starter for obvious reasons I think im gonna replace it with lubuntu.

Kinda weird that windows complicates the permissions process so much. I can see how it could protect people but if you own the data im shocked theres not a simplified way to solve issues like this. Anyway can't give enough thanks for all the help. I was dreading the lengthy process I was gonna have to go through to get back where I was.

your welcome, and I'm glad it worked out for you.