HELP! hard drive problem

[chrisuofc]

I really hope someone can help me here. My T41 broke down a few days ago. The guy I took it to said the motherboard is done. I'm a student and I have two papers and class notes for 3 other classes on the hard drive. The guy pulled the hard drive out and put it in one of those USB things. When I plug it into another computer all of the file folders come up. However, when I go into "Chris's Documents" (I'm Chris), and click on "My Documents," it says the files are protected, but it won't ask for a password or anything. The only password I had on my T41 was the one you type in when you turn it on. If it makes any difference I have XP Pro. When I click on "Properties" for the hard drive, it says there's about 15GB of data (which is about right), and I can run files from other file folders, so I don't think the data is corrupted or anything.

Can anyone think of any reason its doing this and how I could access those files? If not I'm seriously toast this semester.

Thanks

[smvp6459]

In an administrator account you need to right click the folder, go to security and add "Administrator" to the list of users allowed to access the folder.

In some versions of Windows there'll be a button that says "take ownership" or something similar.

[GomJabbar]

What smvp6459 said above, however those options are only available in Windows SAFE MODE.

If your hard drive was password protected, I don't believe you will be able to access it.

[chrisuofc]

In an administrator account you need to right click the folder, go to security and add "Administrator" to the list of users allowed to access the folder.

In some versions of Windows there'll be a button that says "take ownership" or something similar.

Okay I'll try that. How do I get into an administrator account after I boot up in safe mode?