Windows Vista file protection problem

I have a Sony VAIO notebook running Vista OS and Office 2003. I have encountered some technical problem which restart my folder many times in one day. The Sony help desk told me to reinstall the OS back to factory specification by using the recovery disks. So, I did that but I save my old disk and file and use a new disk as system disk.

After restore the OS and Offices, I can't access all my files in the old disk? I received "access denied" error message. So, please tell me to have read/access those file on the origianl system disk? or please tell me what is the right way to copy old file from one disk to another disk using Vista?

Thanks.