Ok, here's the deal. My HDD dies on me , so I replace it and all is well again. The problem is retrieving my old data from the dead HDD. I slapped the 'dead' HDD in my box again and am able to extract many files, except I get an 'Access denied' mesage when I try to get data from my admin account on the old drive. :x Any ideas how I can ...hack? into my old drive and recover my lost data?

Anyone who can help PLEASE do. Thank you

Login as "Administrator" not admin
Make an account on your computer that is the same as the account you were running on the hard drive you were using before,
and try again

Or, make sure you are running the same filesystem
EG, fat32 or NTFS

heres what you need to do because the data held on the HDD is associated with a different user ID than your new on on your new installation of windows go into the root directory of the old HD, Select All, right click and go to properties, then the security tab, then click on the permission button on the bottom right.

Now a window will appear click on the tab called "Owner" and then select yourself from the list of users. Then click ok.

All files will be transfersed to your administrative rights and there you go .....all your old data safe and sound.