Completely messed up my permissions, need files can't copy/paste.

I was just messing around with permissions and ownership before I formatted my hard drive... However, I then realized that I needed to get some files off my harddrive. So I decided to just transfer them to my laptop using my home network. Simple enough.

I can execute, read, write, delete any files on my disk but for some reason I can't drag and drop or copy/cut and paste! ***? I also can't burn files to disks

I can connect to my laptop from the messed up computer with ease but my laptop cannot connect to any shared folders on the computer so I can't do it that way. I can copy and cut files but I cannot paste them anywhere...

Here's other things that are messed up that I don't care about:
The taskbar is gone, directsound drivers are corrupt, recycle bin is corrupt...

I don't care about saving the computer, I just want my files off it and then format so if anyone can come up with a way I can do that, thanks in advance.

*EDIT*

I just found out I can't paste ANYTHING! No files, text, whatever... Thus there must be a problem accessing the clipboard!

 

If XP Pro, try restoring the default security permissions:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=313222

 

Nope, XP Home... Just my luck I suppose. Is there a way to revert them to default in XP Home?

 

I have a general question about permissions.

A week ago, a tech support guy from Symantec was helping me troubleshoot why we couldn't delete my previous version of Antivirus and install a new one. During this process, he made me change all the permissions on my drive. And then -- of course! -- he accidentally disconnected me and never called back. I never could get a hold of them again.

So anyway, I used system restore to try to get my permissions back to the way they were before this guy "helped" me.

My question is, Does system restore in fact return permissions to the way they were just as it returns the registry to the way it was before?