Crashed PC Data off a Hard Drive

Hello,
I've got a serious issue. Last week my laptop died (it won't even boot to the BIOS screen), but my hard drives are still good (or at least I assume they are) I have two drives, one was in the computer at the time and the other was in an enclosure, they are both in enclosures now.

The issue that I'm having is that I can't get my data off my old hard drives (Windows XP) and onto my new laptop (Vista). I have two external enclosures, one for each of my drives but when I hook them up to my new HP laptop I cannot access the data. I can see all the file tree, and I can see all of the folders, but I can't open particular folders or files.

When I try, Vista runs me through a menu for gaining the required permissions etc to access the files. I do all of that and I select the "apply to all subfolders and files" selecetion, but then when I try to open the file or folder again, it gives me the same error about permissions.

I've tried to just copy and paste the entire folders to my new laptop's desktop, but it again gives me the permissions error. Nothing I can do opens the files or folders.

 

I would try to connect the external drives to another XP system to see if you can access the data. Try a friend's pc. If you can, burn a DVD with all of your data. I know it's not a solution, just a workaround.