Can I lose files when changing security on an XP drive within Windows 7?

Question

Hard to come up with a title for this one, sheesh.

Have a friend whose computer went down. He asked me to get all his data off his drive. His old computer was running XP.

So, I've plugged it into my Windows 7 computer. When I attempt to open up his Documents and Settings folder, I get prompted to elevate in order to "permanently get access to this folder."

If I do this, will I be able to access the files in this directory, or will all the current files be lost?

I may be overly paranoid about this, but I can't find any information about exactly what will happen when I do this. TIA.

Answer 1

What happens is that the files and folders on his computer show as belonging to his account. Because you are not accessing the files from his account but from another account, you need to have administrator rights to do so (IIRC admins by default can access any and all folders and files at least under XP), which is why Win7 is prompting you to elevate.
As far as I know, no files will be altered. You just need the extra permissions to read them.