HELP HELP HELP!!! My motherboard died and I can't unlock my old f

[Guest]

I tried to boot the computer and it was dead, I replaced the motherboard and
the computer would start up but XP would not load. I got frustrated and
bought a new harddrive, installed XP and its fine. I hooked up the old hard
drive as a slave, I can access all the files except MY DOCUMENTS. FYI-the
computer was password protected so my documents(owner) could not be accessed
if a guess logged on. Now I can't get my documents back, I have tried to
take over the file without luck, is there any advice?
Thanks
John

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I tried to boot the computer and it was dead, I replaced the
motherboard and the computer would start up but XP would not load.
I got frustrated and bought a new harddrive, installed XP and its
fine. I hooked up the old hard drive as a slave, I can access all
the files except MY DOCUMENTS. FYI-the computer was password
protected so my documents(owner) could not be accessed if a guess
logged on. Now I can't get my documents back, I have tried to
take over the file without luck, is there any advice?

First - if you replaced the motherboard with a different
model/make/version - you would likely have to perform a repair installation
to avoid a clean/parallel installation:

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

And in order to access your files on the old hard drive - you'd have to
'take ownership'...

How to Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

Read *carefully* - do not just skim the page and start following steps.
There is important information there dependent on the version of Windows XP
you have.