i'm working on a freinds pc that crashed cause he's using vista.
on my pc i have XP. when i try to access the user files on his hard drive that i pluged on mine to copy and put back when the reinstall is done, i get an error message saying i dont have access to these files... how can i gain acess to them so i can save his picture music and movies to put them back later! I hope you can help cause this could be a big probleme for saving data off a system that wont boot anymore!

Take ownership of the files, here's a link that explains how to do it...

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

That as wombat has pointed out and also when backing up data files for a repair option it is best to do it straight to CD/DVD and burn them that way and then it becomes much easier to replace the files once the other computer is fixed.

hey thanks alot! that realy did the trick wombat!

Your welcome...