How to gain access to Documents

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I had Win2k8 R2 Datacenter installed on my desktop PC which went up in flames a while ago and now I’m trying to copy all my files from the luckily undamaged SATA HD over to my Win7 OEM notebook. I have an external SATA->USB adapter with which I managed to get access to most of my files, except for the Users/…/Documents folder which is protected/encrypted. If I understand it correctly, due to the way Win7/Win2k8 handles user profiles, I need to log in as an administrator in my Win2k8 configuration, which means I have to boot it first. And this is where I hesitate to proceed—I could probably boot from my external HD either at start-up or through a VM, but I’m a little concerned about possible side effects. So, is there an alternative way to gain access to these files? If not, how should I proceed safely, without changing my original Win2k8 configuration in any way and especially without impairing my chances of booting from that HD on a new desktop PC in the future?

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