Migrating drive: NTFS headaches

Hi Folks,

I'm trying to copy files from my 500GB drive to a backup drive before I reformat it and put it in a new computer. I already have a Ghost backup, but I want a copy of the actual files as well.

I took the 500GB drive out and hooked it and my archive drive up on usb. I tried dragging and dropping all the directories from the 500GB drive over to a folder on the archive drive, but at some point it told me I didn't have permission to open the Program Files (and other) directory. Here begins the NTFS permissions issues.

Ok - so I put the drive back in the laptop and tried granting "Everyone" full access to all the files on the drive. It was taking forever, so I canceled it. Then I started getting "file corrupt" errors. I restored the drive with my Ghost back to before I started messing around.

I then hooked up the 500GB drive via USB to my new laptop and tried giving "Everyone" permission with icacls (icacls h:\ /grant EveryoneF) /T), but I got permission denied. I then taking ownership of the files using icacls (icacls h:\ /setowner MyNewMachine\MyUsername /T /C), but I got another permission denied error.

So, I put the 500GB drive back into the old laptop and try running things from there. I try to take ownership of the Program Files directory recursively, but it starts telling me that a bunch of files are corrupt (strange - never had problems before). And now when I mount it via USB, it won't even mount due to corrupt files.

I could copy the files with linux, not paying attention to NTFS permissions, but I figure I'd just end up with the same problems later, when permissions would be all screwed up on my archive drive.

Ugh. Can anyone give me an easy way out here? All I want is to copy all files from my 500GB drive to a directory in my archive drive. Any ideas out there would be very welcome!

thanks,
alex

Old Computer: Lenovo T400, Windows 7 Pro x64
New Computer: Lenovo T410, Windows 7 Pro x64