Bitcoin Forum

I'm faced with this very question myself. I just bought a new laptop, and it is on the way - my old laptop already has a new owner waiting for her. Still, I used to do a lot of crypto stuff with this laptop, and I'm afraid a regular drive wipe won't be enough to get rid of all my private key stuff that could give access to my crypto to someone else...

So other than doing a regular wipe, maybe 2 or 3, what would you do to guarantee that those keys are not recoverable? Or should I just surrender to my paranoia, buy a new drive, and take out the current one? I'm pretty sure people here have faced this very question here.

How would you protect your Bitcoin and alt-coins private keys from being taken over by someone attempting to recover data from your drive on purpose or accidentally?

If you really want to be totally sure and at the same time have the peace of mind, probably just swap out the hard drive. For your past files to be as totally as unrecoverable as possible(I'm not even sure if there's such thing as 100% unrecoverable), as far as I know it's probably going to be quite complicated that you might as well just save yourself the time and change the hard drive.

There are programs that overwrite your harddisk with random data, cluster by cluster. I've needed one long ago for Windows, I don't know what you use, but I'm sure a search will help you out. That should be pretty safe.

Another idea would be to make on the new laptop completely new wallets for the crypto you've used and transfer your coins to the new wallets. Of course, you'll also need to change the passwords and 2FA for all the accounts if you are this paranoid.  :) But I think that proper full overwrite should do.

Yeah I think paranoia would lead me into this conclusion eventually, NVMEs are not that expensive anymore these days so its not that big of a expense.



I read about a couple of these, I wonder if they work well with NVMEs as well.

I would sell such a laptop only without a hard drive, regardless of all the methods that exist to completely erase the data, the risk is always there. In addition, if the laptop has a classic hard drive the performance of such a device can be significantly improved by installing a solid state drive (SSD) which is not a big investment (around $50 for 256 GB drive).


If you want to be completely safe, then either install a new one (preferably an SSD), or try to sell a laptop without a hard drive.

It doesn't have a classic hard-drive. It has an NVME, its already at the top of the performance chart hard-drive wise. I'll probably end up buying a new NVME to replace it before the new one arrives.

Then indeed the overwrite method may not work.
So: either new wallets and account settings (maybe it's time for a hardware wallet too), either new SSD.

I wonder If these disk wiping programs were legit? I haven't tried using this service, considering there's a lot of tutorials in the internet about how to recover data even from a dead hard drive (but I think that requires special expertise?) So, I guess it's possible to bring back those data back then.
Since we're not too sure about the security of your data, then some of the best options are already suggested from the above commenters.

When I've used such a program, years ago, on a proper old-fashion HDD, it seemed to do what it said: made the data unrecoverable. At least from my tests back then it was so.
However, in SSD era, all this doesn't matter anymore.

To remove your worries replace the drive with a new one and take the old.

That's how you could solve your problem, you have the possible back up without worrying about other people taking it. I have watched some recovery videos that even you wipe out data for many times and formatting it, some experts still have a way to retrieve old data on those drives.

This is a good suggestion though.

Private keys for your bitcoin wallet are highly secured and cannot be easily recovered by anyone other than you IF you keep this on your drive not online. Though I didn't sell my laptop yet since I started in bitcoin I am also planning and never thought of it as well. Now I am thinking to seek technical assistance from someone that is legit and I trusted much.

Anyway, right now I am hoping that someone in this thread could really give us an idea or option on how to make sure that our private key can no longer be recovered by the nested user when I sell this one too.

There a lot of programs that allow to make 3-40 wipes of the disk. Even ccleaner can do this, so, i can recommend this

I am surprised none of the guys here have mentioned about this. Firstly, I would like to say that no matter how many wipes or formats you do over the hard drive, the data can still be recovered. I have myself recovered wiped data using some tools.

Yes you can swap the hard drive with a new one but that would require you to spend some money to buy a new one.

But no need to worry there is a possible solution to this and that is DBAN the drive.
DBAN - Darik's Boot and Nuke is a program to permanently remove a hard disk's data and overwrite it until the data is unrecoverable.

The only drawback is that this program takes hours of time to complete the process.
We are talking somewhere near 24 hours. But it works like a charm.

I didn't pay attention to you writing NVMe, it's just an improved version of the SSD which is using PCI Express interface compared to SATA protocol.

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How do you think no one mentioned that there is always chance to get some data even from disk that is erased? mk4 is say : "probably just swap out the hard drive", and I say "regardless of all the methods that exist to completely erase the data, the risk is always there".

Therefore, the only 100% secure method is not to sell a computer with a hard drive that contained confidential data, and private keys are something that definitely falls into that category.

I have never heard anybody recovering the data from a hard drive which is "completely DBANed".
You can do research over this tool. It is open source.
If you do find information if someone has actually recovered data after a DBAN then please let me know since I would have to inform other friends of mine regarding the same.

dang that alot . seriously up to 40 wipes ?  i think the files were deleted with one 1 wipe and further wipes wont matter anymore but there are tools that recover files though i heared that these recovery tools can only recover recent files so maybe if he sold his laptop long time ago , the files wont not be recoverable anymore  .

it also depend on the owner because not all are interested on recovering things  . this is also bad because it was like stealing  .

I guess this CCleaner "driver wipe" feature does help to a certain extent, probably by making recovering things significantly more complicated for the potential thief, but don't totally count on it though. I could almost guarantee that it's not going to make your hard disk "recover proof".

Transferring the coins to a new wallet would seem to be the best option if one is really "paranoid" that deleted data can still be recovered using new technologies or tactics. I really understand the concern of OP because as they are saying nobody can really be too careful. Another good option is never to sell the laptop or just keep it which is for sure make things really so safe.

I already told my friend I would sell it when the new one arrives, I trust that he wouldn't go snooping around anyway but I'd probably go for a combination of moving to a new wallet + wiping thoroughly with multiple software options.

A single data wipe can erase all the files to the drive, for most cases, there are no reports that tells a recovered data is reconstructed from any data recovery.

Here is my suggestion for you:
* Transfer all your cryptocurrency into a new crypto wallet
* As the most of people did tell, just buy a new drive before selling it.
* Or if you don't want an extra expense, wipe it many times

This will do actually, but some people don't want to buy a 2nd hand laptop that is already opened or repaired. So you should ask the buyer if it's ok to do so it is fair from you both.

We have so called logical data recovery or data reconstruction but I doubt a normal people could do it. And of course don't tell your buyer about your crypto history.

I will advise you to sell the laptop without the hard drive. The technologies are evolving and it could be dangerous selling that laptop off with the hard drive even though you must have formatted the laptop many times. Nobody can tell in which hands the laptop is going to end up in so it is better you remove the drive and use it for other purpose and retire it in a safe place.

I think you are taking this issue too seriously. The fact that recovering a file is a very difficult job, takes time and both. Moreover, as far as I know, in the field of cryptocurrencies, the most important thing for you is the Private Key - you can transfer them to your new computer as the file that stores the Private Key that you can transfer to drive C and proceed to reinstall the operating system for the computer. When installing, please format the entire C drive, so wanting to recover data before installing is really a very difficult job and most of you are safe before this problem!

i have a cloner that offers zero over writes.

all bits set to zero.

it has multiple options and I use 3x most often.

That's like selling a car without the seats. Or if you want to do the buyer a favor, get a new one/ replacement.

Indeed,the Hard drive is the most important part in this one,so better either swap the HD or buy new HD to put on your old Laptop before selling it so there are zero chance of being recovered.

Good for you that being aware of this because others just have sold their old Gadgets and they will be at risk.

You should format your laptop completely before giving it to someone. Do not perform the quick format, rather do the detailed format so that nothing can be recovered for your hard disk. Although it may take some time, but you will be saved from being hacked.

Like what I've said on your case, just keep it if you are unsure.

The person that you might seek help can also keep it on his own while you, not knowing that he has already a copy of it whether you format it for so many times.

It's not advisable to put a copy of your private keys on your personal computers that you use most of the time. Having a written form copy is always the best.

I never sell my old laptop to other people because I don't think that will be what they search. But if I have to sell the laptop, I will move all of my data from the old laptop into an external hard disk drive including my wallet if I store in my laptop, reinstall with the fresh OS, and make sure that my data is all delete. Maybe you need to install a new wallet on the separate place and don't install it in your laptop, or you can buy a ledger to moves all of your coins into that wallet, so you don't have to worry.

This is really a very important issue. You have to be very careful about this. In no way should any important password or private keys be left out. Then you will have to face a lot of losses. You have to delete all your passwords and private key store. You can do this yourself if you want. You don't have to pay extra for this.

i would probably suggest you to just buy a new drive. i wouldn't wanna risk it, personally.