Recover files from Crashed/Reformatted drive.

[Jeroenski10]

 

my computer has erased all data from my samsung external drive T7. this happened after my computer crashed. How can I get the data back?

[nukecad]

As the T7 is an external, USB connected, SSD there is a chance that files can be recovered from it using Recuva.
(Internal SSD's have very little chance of being recovered from).

The Free version of Recuva should be all you need, it does the same as the Pro version but without paying for Technical Support.
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
(Other recovery apps are avaiable).

Note that you should change your computers Power & sleep settings to 'Never' before starting any recovery attempt.
A recovery scan can take hours and if the computer sleeps/hibernates before it has finished then you will probably have to start all over again.

Don't try to save anything on the drive you want to recover from.  In recovery tools this is called the 'Source' drive.
You will need another drive that is large enough to hold the files being recovered. This is the 'Target' drive, the drive that you will recover files to, I suggest making a new folder on it to recover the files into.
(If you are recovering from an external drive then the 'target' could be a new folder on your internal drive - if it is large enough).

If you plug in the drive and look at the drive in Disc Management (AKA 'Create and format hard drive partitions') does it say that the disc is 'RAW'?
A RAW disk has no file table, so Windows cannot know what the files on it are are or any details of them.
It can happen if/when a computer crashes whilst it is writing to that drive. (Which sounds like what may have happened here).
If it is RAW then it will need a 'Quick Format' before Recuva can work with/on it, see below.

Download Recuva Free from the link above and install it on your computer. (NOT on the drive that you want to recover from).

There is a particular way to use Recuva to restore 'non-deleted' files from a corrupt and/or quick-reformatted drive.

I've been able in the past to recover the undeleted files from HDDs that had crashed and become RAW format, I've also done it with crashed USB sticks, (I've not had to do it with a crashed SSD - yet).

1. Connect both the source and the Target drives to the computer where Recuva is installed.
   (Be very careful from now which drive you are selecting in dialogues).
2. If the source drive is RAW then 'Quick Format' the drive with Windows.
   Recuva can then recognise the drive as one with a valid file table.
3. Open Recuva and on the first screen is the recovery wizard - click 'Cancel' to go to Advanced mode.
4. In Advanced mode click on 'Options' and then the 'Actions' tab, tick 'Scan for non-deleted files'.
   You may also want to tick 'Restore folder structure' there, which will attempt to recover the folders as they were - if it can do that.
   'Deep Scan' can find more files, but it does take a lot longer. Your choice, but with a large drive you may want to see what a 'normal' scan can find first.
5. 
   Click OK.
6. Now change the drive to be scanned to the drive letter of your crashed/reformatted drive that you want to recover from.
7. Click 'Scan' in the middle of the menubar,
   With a TB sized drive the scan is probably going to take some time.
8. When the scan has finished it will show what files it has found to recover.
   Tick what you want to recover, or tick the box at the top to recover everything that has been found.
9. Click 'Recover; and you will be asked to select where to recover the files to, set it to your target drive/folder.
10. Click OK and the recovery will start.
11. When the recovery has finished it will show data about how many files it recovered, etc.
    It's time to close out of Recuva and check the recovered files to see if they will open OK.

Note that the files recovered will not have their original names, those have been lost.
Instead each one will have been given a number.

As with any attempted recovery there's no guarantees, but that method has worked successfully for me on a number of occasions - although a very small number of the recovered files were incomplete.

Edit- I found this pretty good video about using Recuva.
('Recoova'? A few videos I found pronounce the u as 'oo', I've always pronounced it 'uv' as in 'Love' ).
This link starts at the section on recovering from a reformatted drive, it's basically the same as above but shows it in action. But why not watch the whole video anyway:
Recovering files from a reformatted drive.