How can i access My documents from a past version of xp on my computer?

This may sound stupid but i now have two versions of xp installed on my computer. Xp would not load up when i turned my computer on the other day. I don’t know what happened it was like xp had been wiped off my hard drive. I put the recovery cd in and it asked me if i wanted to format the hard drive. I didn’t want to loose all of my files from the past 2 and a half years so i made a partion. On re installing wp i got a messege saying that the folder WINDOWS alredy exists. I didn’ t want to replace it so i called the new installation WINDOWS1. After installtion i noticed both windows folder were on my hard drive. This new version of xp has nothing installed on in (no MS office 2003, no drivers for the soundcard, No Mcafee). My uni work and bit torrent downloads were in my documents this folder is still ther i just can’t access it. I know the file havn’t bee deleted becuse the hard drive is almost full. any help would be appreciated

If you’re an administrator on the new install, you can reset the rights on the files.

First, you’ll need advanced file sharing mode.

In Windows Explorer, choose Tools->Folder Options… from the main menu. Go to the View tab, and in the advanced tab, unselect “Use simple file sharing”.

Then, right-click on your old My Documents folder and click Properties from the pop-up menu. On the Security tab, click the Advanced button. On the Owner tab, select your account and check the box “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects”, then click OK.

Now, you’re the owner of these files, and you can access them!

I’ve done this a few times, so I know it works. You can set simple file sharing mode back when you’re done.