Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys,

i'm trying to recover some of the private keys contained in a corrupted NMC encrypted wallet.

I know the passphrase.

I've already tried with this tool https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet and the following command:

sudo python ./pywallet.py --recover --namecoin --recov_device /path/to/corrupted_wallet.dat --recov_size 1Mo --recov_outputdir /home/username/Desktop/recovery

No success! :(

I've also tried to open and read the wallet with an hex editor to see if i could somehow understand its structure and isolate some private keys but i couldn't really understand anything of that, i can see only 8 "ckeyA" strings are present but NO "mkey", the file looks badly corrupted but only one private key contains namecoin so maybe i can recover that one only.

I'm willing to reward with 2 BTC if someone helps me to recover the private key i need.

I'm posting in the bitcoin section because i think NMC wallet format is the same as BTC wallet format, i hope this thread will not be cancelled or moved,

If you need further information please ask.

Thank you.

Have you tried to start the qt wallet with '-salvagewallet' or '-repairwallet' parameter?

Long time ago I've seen this thread and bookmarked it. Maybe it helps. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22697.0
If you already started on the hex path, this shouldn't be hard to check if it's good for you or not.
Good luck!

No luck   :-\

Do you know what may have caused the damage?
Is your HDD slowly dying?

BTW i found  8 "ckeyA" strings inside my wallet, the problem is my wallet is encrypted and i don't know how to extract the private keys from those fragments of text and i don't even know if that's all i need, together with the wallet password, to restore at least those 8 private keys.

Maybe this: (2nd post)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1404609.0

It´s the same way you posted on op, but maybe you ll find a mistake in your command or a hint to solve

The NMC client and the encrypted wallet were stored inside the encrypted Ubuntu home directory of a linux installation running inside a virtualbox virtual machine.  
Last month i decided to format my computer, before doing that i copied the virtual machine file .vdi on an external NTFS hard disk.
At some point the fu.cking linux showed the copy process as completed, the .vdi file was shown inside the external HD and i stupidly decided to unplug the USB and format my computer.
When i later tried to restore the .vdi file, i remount the external HD with the backup and i found out the .vdi file i needed was not there anymore, it has never been copied apparently.
I did a recovery of the ext HD with photorec, it has found some .eCryptfs files that i succesfully mounted and decrypted.
Now amongst these files i have found 1 that is very similar to an NMC encrypted wallet but it has only 8 "ckeyA" strings inside instead of >100 so i think i have my severely damaged NMC wallet.
I couldn't find the mkey record inside that file which i don't know if necessary to decrypt btw, can i recover some private keys from what is left of my original wallet?  

PS: before you suggest, trying a recovery from the original HD is impossible at this point, i formatted my computer more then one time and at some point i've also filled my hard disk with new data.
 

I've tried to use the pywallet utility, i've also tried to recover keys from a new working NMC encrypted wallet but for some reason pywallet doesn't seem to work with NMC wallets at all, corrupted or not.

Ask this guy (he´s online atm): He posted this: https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=21053


good luck!

Hi!
Try this without --namecoin:

What does it return? What is "no success"?
And how did you find 8 "ckeyA"? How many "ckey" do you find?

Starting recovery.

Read 0.0 Go in 0.0 minutes

Found 1 possible wallets
Found 0 possible encrypted keys
Found 0 possible unencrypted keys

Possible wallet #1
    with passphrase #1  

All the found encrypted private keys have been decrypted.
The wallet is encrypted and the passphrase is correct


Importing:


The new wallet /home/username/Desktop/recovery/recovered_wallet_1476451765.dat contains the 0 recovered key



This is the output of pywallet with a valid NMC wallet!

I opened the corrupted wallet with an hex editor and found 8 ckey only and no mkey

Since your bounty is quite consistent, I would assume that your wallet is pretty fat one, so I can assume that you will try all the possible options..

I've read that wallet.dat is a Berkeley DB file. Maybe get the Oracle Berkeley DB files (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database-technologies/berkeleydb/downloads/index.html) and see if db_dump works or maybe try a db_recover on the wallet file and then try again with pywallet.py
I didn't want to install anything so downloaded the zip from Oracle and I compiled it myself. On my wallet the db_dump worked, just it obtained a lot of .. lines which have to be further decrypted (hence the pywallet is still your friend).

Again: you may need to do a db_recover.

Just fork the coin. :D

P.S. Just kidding. Good luck with that, because I suppose you are in tough position...

subscribed. intrested how it ends. wish you best luck recovering all your money

Oh wait, I didn't notice that, this is no good: --recov_size 1Mo
You must put the size of the hard disk in --recov_size, and I bet it's more something around 500Go

You must put at least the size of the file, is your wallet.dat really <1Mo?

It is 135 kb.
Is having the mkey necessary to decrypt some private key?
Because if that parameter is necessary we'd better stop here since i can't find it in my corrupted wallet.

I've found this guy https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=398155.0 had to change something in the pywallet script to make it work with litecoin, maybe i need to change something too?

Isn't that small for a wallet file?

BTW in Pywallet I have hardcoded formats for ckeys that could be different from Namecoin, if you're OK you can send me your wallet (it is encrypted I can't use private keys) and I'll try pywallet without checks to see what I can find.

Are you 100% sure you don't have mkey? Because "Found 1 possible wallets" means pywallet found 1 mkey

No because in his case pywallet found the keys

What i posted was the output for a valid NMC encrypted wallet.
If i run the same command with the corrupted wallet the output is Found 0 possible wallets.

I know it might seem stupid, but I've had some luck in the past with restoring a previous versions of files using Windows. Right Click - Properties - And see if a previous version is avaliable.

Oh sorry, then TBH I don't think there's much hope left  :(

Last hope ever: run pywallet recovery on your HD (according to what happened that is hopeless though) and on your external HD (maybe a bit less hopeless)
I don't think this will work but maybe the Namecoin Gods are around...

I've already tried, no luck  :-\.
So the mkey is necessary to decrypt, am i correct?

Yes the mkey is necessary
I finished looking at your wallet and can't find any mkey or things alike (m?ey, ?key, mk?y...)
Really sorry man  :(

Geez!

How much NMC are in the wallet (if its not a secret...)?

Fuck linux!
Thank you very much everybody for your help.

I believe even Windows "queue" when copying to external disks
Saying the copy is done when it's actually in progress or waiting, is really something I don't get either
I hope you didn't lose a huge amount

Yes it's the most retarded thing i've ever seen, i've been using linux for the past 8 months because they say windows is not safe and has bugs, i jumped from one distro to another, i think i've tried at least 6 of them wasting a lot of time to tweak and fix things, as a result my productivity has decreased 98% and now i've also lost a shitload of coins because it shows you files copied when it actually has not.

Fuck linux never more!

lol send the 2 btc first then ill think about it

Sounds more like he just messed up and doesnt want to admit it. How many NMC are in this wallet that its even worth it?

Does it really matter how much i have lost?
BTW this is the issue https://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/885 apparently i'm not the only one who has lost data due to this stupid linux behaviour.

Man I am sorry for your loss. I wish I had some input to help recover your coins.

FYI though,


is your best friend

https://linux.die.net/man/8/sync

also bud, always backup your keys. If a chunk of rock falls from the sky and smashes your computer, it's not going to care what OS you are running.

I have another 2 copy of the same wallet, but i made those backups BEFORE i decided to encrypt my wallet, so i was not been able to recover the private keys generated after encryption.
For that reason i didn't put too much attention while backing up the hard disk, i was confident i could always recover my coins form the other backups i had, if something went wrong when i formatted my laptop.
Imagine how i felt when i plug in the hard disk and found out the .vdi file was not there and after that i recovered from another backup and found out most of the coins were missing.  :-[

 

I dub thee DERP-A-CHU
http://alltaskstraducoes.com.br/vdisk/27/derp-meme-face-i2.jpg

The last thing that I think the solution of this problem is recover files from the hdd(hdd recovery) is not impossible to recover some files after you formatted your computer or laptop I try this method  every I forgot something to backup in my computer.Just download the easeus recover software to this link http://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-data-after-format.htm this is for windows.And for ubuntu just use testdisk command.If you have any question freely send me a private message.

That's indeed a very good suggestion, but it highly depends on when was the last time you were using the wallet. You can recover some of your information after format, but things are getting worse with every extra minute in which HDD is used. Otherwise, I once recovered over 200 GB of data from a 160 GB drive. But you'd better use a company, which is specialized in recovery of info.

Try program file recovery is most free and working.

Unfortunately, overwritten data can't be recovered
However, I suggest you to contact a professional data recovery service, just to be sure
Example: http://www.chronodisk-data-recovery.ca/

I openly ask for a .25 BTC upfront so that I can spend 2 days of time read the dat file manually and try to find out keys or possibilites to recover the keys. This is not to scam. I just wanted to get my time useful to try.

If you're willing to use my time, please send me dat file with all the dumps or files you think worth to research.

Note: 0.25 btc is a huge amount to try some unknown thing. However, I suggest you to try only if you really get worth NMC if the search becomes successful.

I only ask for 0.24 btc upfront.. guarantee to fix your problem LULZ

why not save the private key, it may be safer for you

Hi
Is it anyone who can help with that?

Sure