For the second time in 3.5 years, the system board on my Gateway notebook failed and it is not economical to fix it.  I took out the hard drive and installed it in an USB hard drive enclosure with USB interface.  I can now access this former hard drive on another WIN XP computer as an external hard drive.  It shows up in the new computer as an "E:drive" under My Computer.  I wish to salvage some data.  However, when I go to E: Documents and Settings/ Administrator, I am not allowed access to the old drive's files.  I presume that this is because I am not logged on as an Administrator to the E:drive's (password protected) Administrator Account.  How can I log on to this E drive's administrator account?  Or, how else can I get to the Administator's password protected files under the former hard drive?  I have the password but without being able to log in to the old hard drive, I cannot enter it or remove it.  I tried booting off of this E drive for it has a WIN XP Professional OP system, but it fails to boot - (I presume because an embedded BIOS code does not match that of the new computer?)  Also is there a way to salvage Microsoft Office off the old drive?  I have the original Office installation disks but will activation on my new computer be barred because of a different BIOS on the new computer?

This article would seem to apply to your situation.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881/en-us

As for as Microsoft Office, I would think you could install and activate it since the old computer no longer exists. You may have to contact Microsoft support for a new activation code though.

Thanks, the microsoft article you recommended helped me solve the problem.  

My old dead computer used WIN XP Professional and the new one has just WIN XP.

The MS article must be written for WIN XP Professional for in WIN XP there is no Advance Setting under Tools/Folder Options/View.  Also in WIN XP, I was ONLY able to execute article's other instructions by doing so in SAFE MODE.  In Safe Mode, I was able to change the OWNER of the old hard drive to my new computer's Administrator Account and now I can access (nearly) all the files on the old hard drive.