Bitcoin Forum

Help, I fucked up really bad, I mistakenly deleted my recovery seed that I wrote down in a txt file on my PC and its been over two weeks now, is there anyway I can recover this? I've tried software like disk drill and other but none gives back that exat .txt file.

If it's overwritten, it's gone. The longer you use the PC, the less likely to find it back. Turn off the PC and continue your file recovery after making a disk image.

Stop booting into that drive or you'll just keep making things worse. Either image the drive (make a copy) to preserve it in its current state or boot into a "live" Linux environment and attempt any recovery from a read-only mount.

SystemRescue [1] includes some data recovery tools. One of them is PhotoRec [2] which (despite its name) can recover many different file types.

It's unfortunate that you used a simple text file because they don't include a file header (except maybe a Unicode BOM), making them hard to locate in a byte-by-byte search. If you remember anything specific about the contents of that file (maybe some small part of your seed) then you might be able to use that information [3] to help PhotoRec find your file.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SystemRescue
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhotoRec
[3] https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Add_your_own_extension_to_PhotoRec

Not sure if you are using a regular mechanical hard drive or an SSD, but the latter makes it more difficult for recovery to take place due to the usage of the Trim command (which frankly, I’ve just discovered looking into this).

Read through this article for example if the file you want to recover is on an SSD
https://www.digitional.com/enabling-trim-for-ssd-in-windows-10-to-enhance-performance/

Other than that, if you’ve already being using your computer/drive for over two weeks, chances are that you may have overwritten the file by now. That’s why, as stated above, it’s imperative to stop using that disk in order to avoid ovewriting the necessary sectors, or at the very least make a disk image.

As said, the recovery seed may be overwritten and unrecoverable.
But you said nothing about the actual wallet (or hardware wallet) based on that seed. Is that still operating? Since a wallet like Electrum may show the seed and you can back it up again. Or, if the wallet is still okay, you can (carefully and with backups) maybe create a new wallet, backup properly the new seed and send the funds from the old wallet to the new one (just, again, make sure the old wallet got a proper backup, we don't want to lose that too). And if you're not sure about any step, ask (for example you may want to create the new wallet in a safe environment).

The seed is supposed to be a backup, if you still have access to your wallet and if you are still able to sign transactions then move your money to a newly generated wallet and make sure to write down your new seed onto paper, if you cant generate a new wallet/seed right now, then you can send your money to an exchange temporally.

Do you have anything else stored on your pc that might make it more likely you'll be able to recover the wallet (sich as a wallet file).

Get a disk image as mentioned above becore doing the following - if you're unsure how to do it you could look up DD (the program) if you're familiar with Linux and just leave it to run - it might take a long time.

Also (and perhaps a stupid question) have you checked EVERY recycle bin (they'll be at least one per mounted machine drive - they used to randomly move things to D on old windows).

LOL! I was just about to suggest the same thing. When in a panic, people tend to overlook the most obvious solutions to their problems.

Is that a Windows PC?
If so, and if it luckily created a restore point before you overwritten the recovery seed, there should be an entry in "Previous Versions" in the txt file's 'Properties'.
If there are entries, try to restore each in descending order by date.

You didn't say what operating system you are using and if you are using HDD or SSD, but after two weeks is harder to correctly recover files you deleted.
Installing new software and adding new files on top of your system will only make recovery harder, but in theory SSD deleted files are easier to recover.
It's much better to keep physical backup with seed words written on paper or metal, and have multiple copies on different locations.

I know software that can recover data but its not 100% all data can be recovered it called Recuva you might give it try. I have been try this but its 4 year ago and most of big data still can be recovered

If you have system restore points enabled you could try use shadow copy.
It a kind of time machine.. go back to a previous version of a file

Try the tool using link below. But only works when system restore is enabled

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shadow_copy_view.html

Is there any chance you can find the wallet file?
If you can find the wallet file (and know the password if it's encrypted), you can access your fund without knowing the seed phrase.

If you have deleted the wallet file, I recommend you to follow nc50lc's suggestions for electrum data directory as well. You may be able to restore the wallet file.

Damn, hopefully you didn't shut down or restart your device.  Not sure if this will work but anything is almost worth a try at this point.  Read this over and see if it helps:
https://www.ubackup.com/data-recovery-disk/how-to-recover-notepad-files-not-saved.html

I feel you have misunderstood OP's problem.
What matters is that whether the deleted file has been overwritten or not and we should hope that OP has shut down the computer and hasn't used it anymore.
Also, according to OP, the text file was deleted more than two weeks ago. It's very unlikely that OP hasn't shut down the computer in these two weeks.

Desperate times call for desperate measure.  I didn't misunderstand nor am trying to extinguish hope, but am trying to consider the possibilities, whether a straight shot or long shot, anything that could potentially help the OP.

I have not used Windows for a long time, but while working on Windows 7, I once recovered deleted files using one of the programs that can do this.

And today I got into the search and in the reviews, I found a program that can recover all deleted files. Nowhere is it mentioned that the computer should not be turned off after losing files. The program is called FoneLab Data Retriever. I think the OP can find and try it.

Also, in our city, there are points where experienced people can recover files even if the disk has been formatted. I know that the OP does not need to contact such offices. We are talking about something else. Even if such files are restored, then there is still the possibility of recovery.

as well as:

https://www.fonelab.com/resource/recover-text-file-in-windows.html

Disk Drill can get the job done, I've been able to recover lost and deleted files using thus software on my windows 10 PC, don't bother trying the restore recovery type because the file was deleted since over two weeks so the dates you are going to get in restore point will be between one week. Good luck.

In fact, it's possible. When I got the opportunity to place a work computer in a separate room, I did not turn it off for several weeks: sometimes it processed work tasks, and sometimes it just wait for me. However, I do not know if it is important if a computer went into sleep mode in this case. All apps still working anyway, so...

Having multiple means of safe keeping secret phrases shouod be one thing we should take seriosly in tue case of such situation as this there will be available alternative to it all.

Well, yeah you did actually. You're old enough here to have stumbled on this warning that people shouldn't save their seedphrase or any valuable data on PC/desktop. Writing such out on paper has proved to be more reliable than storing it on mobile devices. While not trying to rub it in your face, I sincerely do hope you recover it and also that others too learn from your mistake on this. What's the feedback, OP?

However, make sure storing secret phrases doesn't involve leaving them on a PC or a mobile device, especially one connected to the Internet. Doing that leaves one vulnerable to hackers.