Can I externally attach an old XP hard drive to my Vista laptop?

[CORed]

If it's anything like XP and 2000 (I haven't actually worked with a Vista computer yet), what you need to do , in the security tab for the folder, is go into the "advanced" settings and "take ownership" of the folder, then you should be able to set the permissions so you can access it. You need to be an administrator to do this.