Resolved Folder access denied even with permissions updated

Hello!
I had a windows XP machine that had a critical windows error and would not boot. I bought a new computer (Windows 7)and wanted to attempt to salvage what was on my old hard drive.

My first attempt was to use a bootable linux CD in my old computer, which worked, it showed me all my files, but would only let me see them as "read only" and not copy them to my external hard drive. I'm confused as to why they show up as read only through bootable linux in the first place?

Second attempt was to remove the hold hard drive and use a SATA Adapter with USB connection and treat the old internal hard drive as an external drive on my new machine. Again I was able to see the file structure, but when I tried to open the folders I was told Access was denied as I did not have permission to access.

Third step was to then go into the permissions for a specific folder and change permission to take ownership. That would allow me to open the individual folder, but not the files in it. So I took ownership of the individual file itself and at that point it would launch the program to open, but I would gets the "Access denied" message for the file itself. (ie: Word opened, but the .doc would give me the error, or paint would open, but the .jpg would error, etc) I tried this on several folders and sub folders and specific files within the folders, which was tedious to take ownership of each step of the process, only to get denied still.

I even went into the permission of the drive itself and went into sharing and marked it to share, then into the security tab and changed permissions/ownership at the drive level as well, but I still can not open my files.

Ive been searching google for similar issues and it seem that this is not an uncommon issue with attempting to take data from an old internal-now external hard drive from xp to windows 7, but every forum I have found and followed their recommendations posted have not produced any resolution for me.

Im getting very frustrated and would really like to get my old files back.

My XP machine was not password protected and had only one user account on it, which was the main administrator account.

If any one has any input on how to correct this, I would really appreciate the advice! Thank you!

 

Thank you! That worked! Ive been pulling my hair out trying to get through all these security and permission changes. You are awesome

 

Broni. I thank you also.
I just installed Win7 and this really helped me.