External hard drive "Access denied" on Windows XP

My computer crashed and I had to re-install the Windows XP Pro OS again. Once it was all installed I tried to access my external hard drive. It poped-up with a message:

E:\ Not accessible
Access denied

My solution was to follow these steps below:

• In Windows explorer click on Tools in the menu
• Select Folder options
• Click the view tab
• Untick "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)"
• Click Ok
• Now right click on the external hard drive
• Select Properties
• Goto the Security tab
• Add your user to the ownership with full permissions

Hope this helps anyone out there!

You can read the following post that helped me out:

http://www.mindfrost82.com/f167-windows-xp/40629-access-denied-my-external-hard-drive-xp-home-edition.html

http://forums.prophecy.co.za/f10/security-tab-missing-ntfs-drive-properties-1206/