access files on win 8 hard drive

Hi all,
My uncles laptop died (motherboard issue so its dead) but he needs the files off the hard drive. I put it in a caddy and could see root folder as normal but I cannot access files. I have his password but cannot see how to enter it to access the files from the caddy. As I said his laptop died. Now normally i would put H/D in my netbook and boot up, enter password at login and off we go but as its win 8 I am not sure If I can do that as it locks the os to the hardware. Unless I am wrong of course (reluctant to try without checking) Any ideas?