grrr. Spyware, actually crappy CyberDefender, a so called anti-spyware destroyed my Win XP OS. Disabled all the services, couldn;t do anything, had to clean install. I replaced the drive from my laptop to keep the files since I couldn't exlpore, copy, cut and paste. My files such as old emails and text files are in the old my documents folder. When I plug that external drive in, even with the new install having the same username, I can't access the files. You'd think I could change the security settings but I don't have that option. I don't have any server setup do that that either, assuming it would work.
I want to try Knoppix but I am not having luck, not yet-my new install doesn't recognize bootable live cds for some reason, i don't know why...but that's another issue.
Does anyone know which version of Linux I could use to get past the issue with the saved drive into my old folder? It reads the drive which is in an external well, and will access some folders, just not the username folder.

Your new install should not effect your ability to use live cds. To get them to work you need to make sure that your primary boot device is set to your cd drive. You need to do this in bios. once your in knoppix you should be able to copy the files and perform changes to there security. I know there is NTFS support within Knoppix but these area of Linux still needs some work.

which bios/motherboard are you using?

if you want to access these files from your new windows install you should be able to disable the security by:
tools->folder options->view->"use simple file sharing"

at least that worked for me when I had a similar problem