Bitcoin Forum

My laptop has a new hard disk. Before that i had my Electrum software downloaded. After i download a new Electrum, how do i retrieve my past account and balance?

Did you backup your private keys or seed or anything from your old harddisk before installing the new version? I really hope you did....

Either you need to have saved ALL your private keys ( which would be a good option if you only used 1 adress / no change adresses), or use a seed as the user mentioned above.


Or, you could see if you saved your (potentially) encrypted wallet file on your old disk ( Appdata > Roaming > Electrum > Wallets (if you're using windows)), import it in your new wallet and unlock it with the password you once used/set.

You should move (bottom-left corner) this thread to the Electrum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=98.0) board.

You have two options:
1. find back the seed word phrase (12 words) you wrote down when you first installed Electrum, and enter them into your new Electrum to restore your wallet.
2. plug your old hard disk into hard drive enclosure, connect it to your USB, and copy your old wallet.

If you don't have your seed word phrase, and your old disk is broken, you'll need (expensive) data recovery to find back your wallet.

Old hard disk cannot be used anymore. I still have have the old seed. After i created the new Electrum wallet using my old seed, the seed is well inside the wallet.

In that case, your old transactions and balance should just show up again. I take it that didn't happen, since you opened this thread? What exactly did you do to import it?

I did not import anything. The old transactions and balance just don't appear. The seed inside is what i kept and saved somewhere else before i replaced my hd and is what i used to create this new Electrum wallet.

Did you use the old seed when you set up the new wallet? If you didn't, you should still do that: make a new wallet: New > Standard Wallet > I already have a seed > Enter your seed.

The circle icon in the bottom right is green. This means the Electrum has synchronized with the network.

That won't help you if you didn't restore your old seed. The seed is a list of 12 words, do you have them? (don't post them here)

Your electrum is synced. But you arent 'logged in into your account' which holds the btc balance.
You need one of the following to 'get your wallet back':
1) Seed phrase (of your old wallet)
2) Wallet file

Do you still have access to your old hard drive? Did it get corrupted? Or locally not accessable?
If thats not an option, you have to search for your seed phrase to recover your wallet.
In electrum you need to create a new wallet and choose to restore an already existing wallet. Afterwards enter the seed into electrum and you are fine.

If it is synced, you should see your balance right after you enter your "PASSWORD" that you've used to create the wallet. I followed all the steps just as mentioned by LoyceV and everything was perfect. If you don't have your wallet file, but have your wallet seed (12 words passphrase to help recover your account if you try to import one), I believe you should be able to see your balance as well as all the addresses included in that "old" wallet. Would you mind sharing a screenshot^ of what exactly do you see once you enter your password?

^ = Screenshot of the wallet once you enter your password (and not the seed).

As well, you said that you didn't import anything.
But let me clarify one thing to you, whenever you're making a new wallet by using a "seed" of an old "wallet", you're generally importing your address/es and balance/s stored in that old "wallet".

I don't how to show you the screenshot. I can tell you that  below Data Description Amount Balance, it is blank.

Did you read the posts by LoyceV and me?
You should answer those questions and follow the steps if you want to recover your wallet and get your coins back.

In post 5 he says he restored from seed. @kongxx try the things listed here (https://bitcoinelectrum.com/frequently-asked-questions/#why-does-restoring-my-wallet-from-seed-lead-to-a-different-wallet).

I also can't see two of the old addresses that i used before from my old WALLET in my new wallet.

did you try all the things mentioned in that link on post 15 above?

I think i already tried all that were relevant to me and that i understood.

If you have missing addresses then it is possible that:

a. The addresses you're looking for a "change" addresses - Electrum displayed "receiving" address only by default. Did you adjust the dropdown on the "Addresses" tab from "receiving" to "change"?

b. The addresses you can't find are past the "gap limit" of your wallet - Default gap limit is 20, did you try adjusting the gap limit like the article in Abdussamad's post suggested?

c. You have a (VERY) old wallet that allowed storing imported private keys AND keys generated from seed - How old is your wallet? If this is the case, you will likely not be able to recover those keys/addresses, unless you have them or your old wallet file backed up.

I created my old wallet on Dec 2017.

If the old wallet was from Dec 2017, then it is NOT reason c. (assuming you didn't create it with Electrum version 1.9 :P).

So, the "missing" addresses are most likely because of reason a. or b.

- Did you check the "change" address list for the addresses you think are missing?
- Did you try setting the "gap limit" to a larger value as per the link from Abdussamad? On the "Console" tab (View -> Show Console), use the command:
Then shutdown and re-open Electrum...

I checked the "change". I tried gap limits 50 and 20.
But i still don't get my balance.

I still hope....

If your Laptop is windows:

• Hold Ctrl+PrintScreen to copy the whole screen then
• Create a new image to the desktop. Right Click on the Desktop>New>Bitmap Image.
• Right Click the blank image>Edit then Ctrl+V to paste the Screenshot Image (crop it if you want).
• Click "Save As" and save it as a jpg image.

If it is Windows 8/10, doing a screenshot is much simpler. Hit WindowsButton+PrintScreen. The image will be saved in *User>Pictures>Screenshot Folder.

You misunderstood. I mean i don't know how to put the screenshot here. I don't mean i don't know how to make the screenshot.

Lol, sorry.
Read this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2958771.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2958771.0) for information about posting images.
But since that's a newbie account, use links instead.
Example:

Try creating some change addresses with this command on the console tab:


Then restart electrum and see if the correct balance shows up.

No balance is visible.

Do you see ANY addresses from your "old" wallet? Or do you only know that 2 addresses you have used previously in your "old" wallet are not showing in the list in the "new" wallet?

I know only two addresses that i used before from my old Electrum. These two are not in the new Electrum. I am not sure of other addresses in my old Electrum. So i don't know whether those new addresses in the new Electrum used to appear in my old wallet

So you are seeing 0 balance in the bottom left corner?

What value are you seeing for blockchain under tools > network > first tab?

Below History, it is blank.

Blockchain: 512905 blocks

Connected nodes  contain various values.

Can you confirm the number of blocks... Current block height is only 512113... I'm assuming you mean 512095 ;)

If the number is correct, then it looks like it is synced OK... So it looks like another case of "valid, but incorrect seed". :-\

Have you ever restored your wallet using this seed before or is this the first time you've tried restoring from seed?

Blockchain: 51297 blocks

Connected to 10 nodes

There are various nodes. Current height is 51297.

But these values always change.

I never restored the wallet using this seed.

Or is it possible that this seed leads to another wallet not mine?

Electrum allows you to have multiple wallets... So, I suspect that what has happened, is that you're copied down a seed while setting up a wallet in Electrum, but for whatever reason, have actually been using ANOTHER wallet file to get addresses and send/receive transctions... :-\

It would happen something like this:

- You already have a wallet called "default_wallet" (maybe from a previous install, as Electrum doesn't delete wallet files when uninstalled)
- You create a new wallet, say "wallet_file_1", and write the seed down
- When you re-open Electrum, it opens "default_wallet" instead of "wallet_file_1"... you use this wallet to send/receive
- Your computer harddrive breaks
- You reinstall Electrum and restore seed... but it is restoring "wallet_file_1" which has no transactions or coins :-\

However, without the original drive, it's impossible to check my theory (you could simply look in the "wallets" folder and see if you have multiple wallet files)...


This is why it is ALWAYS important to make sure that when you create a new wallet, you check that the seed you have written down is working correctly and restoring the wallet with correct addresses before you start using it!