Need help Recovering files

[Windblade]

Ok, so my computer dies and I buy a new one. I take my old hard drive, put it in a caddy, whack it into my usb, everything is fine. I can access all my files...except for the ones I want.

If I go to My Documents, I can't actually access it. "Access Denied" blah blah. A quick mouse over says the folder is empy. But if I go to the Harddrive, and see how much there is, it says 35 gig used, which is was before the computer died. The catch is if I go into the Harddrive itself, highlight all the folders, there is only 25 gig used, leaving 10 gig unaccounted for, which I know was about the size of the 'My Documents' folder.

I am playing Google game now, but there's just a lot of people trying to sell me File recovery Programs. The files need finding, not undeleted...I think. Im pretty sure it probably has something to do with the fact that it was password protected. I can get into the other "My Documents" such as Administrator and Shared Documents, but not the 'user' that I was using.

So can anyone help? Or even point me in the right direction?

[Armoured_Crusader]

When you say it was password protected, do you mean you have to enter the right password or do you not even get that option. If not I can't really help but if so can you remember the password?

[King Edward I]

put the old HDD directly in the machine and boot from it, have your new drive conencted t the same time and copy ovr the files, its the windows security preventing you from copying it from an external drive..

[Aristocrat]

Try

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread47831.html

[Erik]

Your problem is that you don't have the right to access those files.

You can try logging in as system administrator.
I'm not sure if system administrators have the right to view all user files, but it's worth a try.

Or do what King Edward I suggested: boot from your old HD to gain the proper user rights (allowing you to access those files again) and then either move the files to a public folder or copy them to your new HD.