File Acces on XP Drive

Greetings!

I have the following problem- A client of mine had the misfortune of a power spike on his laptop. he has bought a new laptop but now here is the problem. When we try to access the files from his old hard drive- My Document folder, we get an error. Something along the line of files protected... What are the procedure as far as retrieving the documents from the old hard drive?

Thank you.

Arthur