Vista - Data Access

This is, I hope, a simple question for someone more knowlegable than I.
How do I, as single and only user on my personal machine, open all area of
the disk to my use?
I did an installation, old data and progs were put in windows old, and vista
looked good.
Unfortunately it will not allow me to access my old data, and MS Office
beta, which worked under XP Pro, now gives me the message" MS Office Outlook
(or Word) has not been installed for the current user. Please run setup to
install the application" - what setup?
I hope this not too stupid a question.