Cannot access files created with XP

As I have already here and in other groups, I cannot access any of the files
that were on my (3) 300gb hardrives with Windows XP. I have taken ownership
of the frives and the files and folders contained in them, to no avail.
Windows Media can access the mp3, photo and video files, and Windows
Screensaver can access my photo folder, but when I open any folder on any of
these drives it says they are empty (whcih, of course, they are not).

Vista RC1 is installed on a separate 158gb drive (two 80gb drives actually,
running RAID 0) and I have no problem with saving stuff on that drive, exept
that I don't want to.

At any rate, I have MUCH information on those drives that I need to get
access to. Burning it all to DVDs is impractical. I do have a Windows XP
Pro machine (wife's computer) and a 300gb USB drive that I could use if I
knew it would do any good.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Most likely you'll have to "walk" me
through it, although I have already done everything to folder and file
security I know how to do. As a separate rant, does Microsoft really believe
that people are going to run Vista in either brand new computers or ones
without drives that were created on XP? Other than those issues, Vista is
working fine and I like it.

PS. How do so many poeple already have RC2? RC1 is what I believe I have
(I downloaded it a few days ago). Is RC2 being released from the BETA PLACE
site?

Thanks again.

"Keith" wrote:

> As I have already here and in other groups, I cannot access any of the files
> that were on my (3) 300gb hardrives with Windows XP. I have taken ownership
> of the frives and the files and folders contained in them, to no avail.
> Windows Media can access the mp3, photo and video files, and Windows
> Screensaver can access my photo folder, but when I open any folder on any of
> these drives it says they are empty (whcih, of course, they are not).
>
> Vista RC1 is installed on a separate 158gb drive (two 80gb drives actually,
> running RAID 0) and I have no problem with saving stuff on that drive, exept
> that I don't want to.
>
> At any rate, I have MUCH information on those drives that I need to get
> access to. Burning it all to DVDs is impractical. I do have a Windows XP
> Pro machine (wife's computer) and a 300gb USB drive that I could use if I
> knew it would do any good.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated. Most likely you'll have to "walk" me
> through it, although I have already done everything to folder and file
> security I know how to do. As a separate rant, does Microsoft really believe
> that people are going to run Vista in either brand new computers or ones
> without drives that were created on XP? Other than those issues, Vista is
> working fine and I like it.
>
> PS. How do so many poeple already have RC2? RC1 is what I believe I have
> (I downloaded it a few days ago). Is RC2 being released from the BETA PLACE
> site?
>
> Thanks again.