access to folders denied

[Aaron]

Upon noticing that my hard drive in my laptop was
going bad, i removed it and put it in a portable hard
drive case so that i could access its files via USB.
Unfortunately i do not have access to folders that
were stored on the desktop. Is there a way to get around
this "access denied" message so that i can save my
very imporant data before the drive crashes?

I do not have the option of the "security"
tab in the properties of these folders; and so I cannot
set the owners that are allowed access this. Is there
another way to allow access to move or even copy this
folder?

 

[Roger Abell]

The security tab should be accessible with a safe mode boot.
If you have NTbackup installed, then, logged in as an admin
make a backup of the file areas (on desktop means in the
profile of the account in Documents and Settings). You can
then restore to alternate location and you can specify to not
restore permissions.
If you do take ownership and modify permissions, you will
need to make sure that the permissions end up granting Full
Control to the account whose profile it is (at least you need
to do this if you are going to put the disk back in the laptop,
boot, and log in with that account).