Okay well I have a 250GB hard drive partitioned into two different partitions. I use one of them for storing my media files such as images, music and videos. Well as of lately some of my folders started giving me the "access denied" error message... How do I fix this, I have gigabytes of files on one of the folder that just recently became unaccessible.

If someone could help me I would really appreciate it.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

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

Doesn't work. Safe mode doesnt work either. What else can I do?

Try a System Restore to a point prior to the problem:

start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore

If this doesn't work for you you should be able to access your Built-in Administrator account which should be unadulterated.

In XP Home you need to do this Via Safe Mode. The account will be named Administrator (unless you have changed it).

In Pro you can access it from a standard boot by pressing Ctrl Alt Delete twice on the Welcome screen.

This account (assuming that you are not already using it) should be in a pure state.

I tried going into safe mode and changin permissions with both the administrator's account and the regular account, however the access to both is still denied...

Is this Home or Pro?

SP2?

Are both partitions NTFS?

This was working OK previously?

Did you try a System Restore?

Any idea of any action or software that might have coincided with this issue?

Do you run Virus scans?

While in Safe Mode turn off your Anti-Virus.

Also try running chkdsk

start > run > cmd
in the new window type chkdsk /f
when prompted to run on boot choose Y & reboot
this will check for & fix any disk errors.