WinXP reinstall failed - can't access documents

[piano632]

To make a long story short, I tried to reinstall WinXP several times and it gets so far then restarts without completing the reinstall. Then it starts the reinstall all over again and fails at the same point (repeat ad nauseum). I'm taking this as a sign that there is something wrong with the original WinXP install that it can't fix. So then I made a new install of WinXP on another partition which works OK (after several hours of work). But now my problem is how do I access my documents under the original WinXP which required a password and is now obviously corrupted? Access is denied if I simply try to open the old Documents folder. Safe Mode doesn't seem to be any help. Is there a way to simply delete the old WinXP install without losing the documents?

[guns1inger]

You should be able to take ownership of the old documents, then copy them to your new My Documents area.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Of course, if they are really corrupted, you may be really screwed.

[piano632]

OK, it worked... after a few tries. I had to take ownership and then move the folder contents to another folder to be able to access them under my name.