but when i go into my old hard drive and go to drive F (the old hard drive) documents and settings - dave - desktop, i cant get it, it also says that the folder is empty. the message that pops up says it is not accessible.

You need to verify your setup with us.

Did you install your old drive as a slave? Understand that drive letters are assigned dynamically - so, for example, if you have two hard drives (C and D) and one DVD drive (E) and you partition the C drive into two drives, the old C drive will become C drive and D drive. The old D will shift to E, and now the DVD will become F. So, what was F on your old may not be F on your new, as all the letters will shift as necessary.

This is why I always, as soon as possible, reletter my CD drive to "Q" and my DVD to "V" - in this way, they are out of the way of any shifting, should I add or remove a hard drive or partition.

You are using XP or newer, right?