Gain access to user documents through external HDD kit

I have a user who needs a power supply for her computer. It is under warranty and the manufacturer said to back up all documents/pictures because they said for some reason they might get lost . Anyway I have the Vista HDD on an external HDD kit hooked up to an XP machine. I can see all of the folders on the HDD but I cannot access the users documents because of permissions. It comes up with Access Denied, is there any way around this?

Thanks in advanced for the help...

Are the files encrypted?

Nope but I figured it out I had to add my admin account to full control in the permissions tab for that folder.