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Need help with Laptop HDD.

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Hello all. I have a problem i dont know how to solve, so i thought i would ask the professionals here at TPU.:)

So, i removed a HDD from a laptop, with windows 7 installed on it. I connected it to my desktop pc(as a second drive, not system), but windows doesnt assign a drive letter to it. I think it is probably becouse the drive had the same letter(C: ) so i would have to assign it a different letter. Question is: will the drive loose its contents if i assign it a different letter?

Under disk management, the drive is seen, but without a letter, and it looks to be empty.(Size and freespace read the same) That confuses me, becouse the drive had a lot of files on it, before i took it out of the Laptop, and i need those files.

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks
 
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I've connected 2.5" drives to desktop boards and they show up fine; Windows assigns a different drive letter automatically. Does the drive work with the laptop?
 
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Are you sure you connected a system drive? I believe the problem is becouse the drive had the same letter assigned than the system drive in the desktop. I cant try it in the laptop, becouse it died.
Oh and the drive is not dead, i successfully recoverd all the data from it with the R-Studio software. The only problem is windows doesnt assign a letter to it.
 
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Windows should detect the drive and assign a letter to it in the order available. The contents should be intact, is the jumper set to cable select? And it doesn't matter what the letter assigned to it on the other comp was
 
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There is no jumper on the drive, i dont think sata drives have jumpers anyhow. And as i said, i was able to recover all the data using special software, but cant get windows to show it in explorer. Do you think i should assign it a letter manually in disk management under windows? Wont it clear the table of contents or just want to format the drive if i do that?
 
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No it wont format it my just assigning a letter

I dont know why it wouldn't do it automatically
 
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