Laptop hard drive permissions problem

[Pocketrockets]

My friend's laptop died, so I told her I'd get the data off it for her. I got one of those SATA to USB hard drive enclosures. and it works fine except I can't access her user folder and all its subfolders. I can change the permission on those folders to access them, but once i get to a file, even if I change the permissions on it, it won't let me open the file. Google has been no help. Any ideas?

[Isiolia]

Tried changing ownership of the drive/folder? Security tab -> Advanced -> Owner tab -> Edit then change (and check the box for subfolders)?

If you're using a Home version of Windows, you'll need to log in as Administrator in Safe Mode to see the Security tab (or hack it in otherwise).

[rezn0r]

if you're in XP go to Tools / Folder Options / View / way down the bottom of all the options uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended) - either way regardless of OS like Isiolia said you need to take full ownership of the entire tree

[Ikith]

If you know a little about linux then grab a live ubuntu CD boot it up with the drive attatched and drag and drop what you want off of it since permissions don't apply on linux.