Trying to reinstall XP without losing My Docs, access denied error...

[DarkenReaper57]

I've been following the guide here http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2109p156id111652.htm to reinstall Windows XP (Pro) without losing my data. I want to save everything in My Documents if at all possible. Everything has gone fine so far, and I see my original account under the Documents and Settings folder after reinstallation and creation of a temporary admin account, but whenever I try to access the old account's folder, I get the following message:

D:\Documents and Settings\[insert username here] is not accessible. Access is denied.

I think this is because I made my user account "private" in the previous installation of xp, so the files were encrypted. Is there any way I can get access to these files again?

Thanks for any help.

[DarkenReaper57]

I think I fixed the problem after browsing around a while for a solution

[FireExit]

While you probably figured this out by your second post, it is worth still mentioning it for anybody else who needs the help.

You basically need to "Take Ownership" of the files folder that you need. I usually find the best way of doing this is to use the root Administrator account in Safe Mode.

Browse to the Documents and Settings folder and then right click on the user profile that you want to take ownership of. Select the Security tab then click Advanced. Click Ownership. Select the Administrators group and put a tick in the box that says something similar to "Apply to subfolders". Click apply and ok.

Now, if your normal user account is a member of the Administrators group you should be able to access the files you need once your back in Normal mode.