Recently the motherboard in my laptop has self-destructed - however, I
need the files on my hard drive very badly!

   I have taken the hard drive out and switched it into an external
hard drive casing. When I plug it into my computer, it works just
fine. I'm able to access every file- EXCEPT those found in my personal
folders (i.e. My. Documents, Desktop, Favorites...) - a message comes
up "Access Denied"

I assume this is because my user profile was password protected.

  Please, does anyone know how I can possibly access these files?

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Clarification of Question by chrisgreen7-ga on 16 May 2006 10:42 PDT

I just thought I'd clarify that I'm plugging the external hard drive
into my desktop computer.

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 16 May 2006 11:19 PDT

Hi chrisgreen,

This solution may work for you.

Error Message: "Access Is Denied" When You Try to Open NTFS File System Folders
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B823306

Will look forward to hearing how you make out,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by chrisgreen7-ga on 16 May 2006 16:45 PDT

That wasn't an exact solution, but it pointed me enough in the right
direction that I got it all worked out :-D

   For anyone else who has this problem and reads this thread. After I
clicked on the security tab (As it says to do on this link), I
couldn't click "add" but a popup came up that asked me to do something
else - I did that - it worked.

Thanks! (Post it as an answer, make it official)

Dear chrisgreen7,

Thanks for the great news and for giving me the opportunity to post my
answer. Here it is again to make it official.

Error Message: "Access Is Denied" When You Try to Open NTFS File System Folders
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B823306

Let's hope it's the last time you'll have to use it!
Sincerely,
hummer

Google Search Terms Used: external hard drive "access denied" personal folders

Sent me in the right direction. I'm sure if I had any more trouble
from there he could have helped me too. Great work!