Taking Ownership Of a Folder

Sometimes when you reinstall Windows XP, you can receive an Access Denied error when trying to open a previous user's directory.To take ownership of that folder again:
Log on with an account that has administrator rights
Right click on the folder
Select Properties
Click on the Security tab
Click on the Advanced button
Click on the Owner tab
In the list of Names, click on your name
To take ownership, click on Replace owner on subcontainers and objects
Click OK and Yes