I'm trying to rescue files from a laptop that crashed. I hooked up the drive to a USB external enclosure and my PC detects the drive without problem. However, when I try to open the folder for a particular user under "Documents and Settings" it refuse to open and says "access denied". I suppose this is due to NTFS security and admin password. How do I go about entering the correct password to gain access of the files to rescue it.

By the way, it is not the USB enclosure problem since I have tried two different onces and both reports the same problem. I can open other folder and files without problem.

Thanks in advance.

You need to take ownership of the folder. It's under properites and then security.

If the files were encrypted you'll probably never get them back.

That worked! Thanks!

I can now access the folder and files.