[Liverpool] can I have permission?

[Iain MacGranthin]

Some time ago (early April), I posted about a hard disk problem on a  
SuSe linux 10.0 set up I was having, which looked potentially fatal.

As I did not have the spare grey cells to tackle it at the time, I  
put it to 1 side until my windows pc refused to boot anymore, which  
was in the past week.
Having nothing to lose, I reinstalled SuSe 10.0 on the linux pc to  
find that apart from personal folders from the previous installation,  
I had access to what I thought was probably gone forever...

With joy in my heart, I then thought, what the hey, lets install SuSe  
10.1 for good measure, and I now have to decide how to get round the  
issue of permissions...
When I reinstalled SuSe 10.0, I had access to all my volumes, but  
with the 10.1 installation, I can only access the volume that I have  
installed 10.1 on, with the others having no permission.

What can I do to grant myself full permission to the other volumes,  
short of reinstalling 10.0 again, and once I have done that, how  
might I grant myself permission to the personal folders that I  
couldn't access when 10.0 was reinstalled.

I guess what I am really asking is can I be instructed on how to fix  
my immediate problem, and then what can I do/study to get a proper  
understanding of Linux security and permissions, which I know is  
something that is fundamental to Linux and that therefore I should be  
handy with...?

PS before any one even thinks about the 'backups' lecture, I was  
setting up the Linux system to hold back ups from the pc, and an  
Apple laptop: and this was raising the same kind of questions about  
permissions, security, and also effective networking with Mac OS X  
systems (which I could only get partially working through Samba, so  
any thoughts on that would be appreciated as well).