Bitcoin Forum

hello all..i have been a lurker on these forums for awhile and have recently decided to buy some btc during the last downtrend...i used the bitcoin qt 0.8.6 and had it on an external ssd...my friend was reformatting my computer and as he was trying to create a partition but he deleted my ubuntu OS which had my wallet software on it...i procrastinated on backing up my wallet.dat equivalent file on linux..all i have is my private key and my address where my coins reside..is there any way to recover my btc or are they lost forever??
thank you all in advance. ??? ???

Yes, go to blockchain.info and make wallet and then import you private key and you have your coins back.

What this guy said is correct. Good job on keeping your private key! Go and claim those coins! :)

hey thank you all for such a quick reply..i just want to say you guys are the best EVER ;D ;D ;D ;D

No problem, I'm happy to help you :)

But if you had big amount of coins there and feel like you want to thank me you can always send some coins to that address in my signature ;)

You do not need to go to blockchain.info...

You can import private key to any client ...

Yeah, that is true, but blockchain.info is easiest way.
And I don't know so much about desktop wallets so told about that one because I use it and I was sure about that.

Blockchain lets you sweep the key and add coins to your existing address and prv key where other clients don't have that feature, multibit for example. I would say just go with blockchain, it's the easiest option.     

The so called "sweep keys" is simply "send the bitcoin to a newly generated address".
So, you could easily do that with any wallet software.

Just by the title I thought to myself "No, you can't" before even opening the thread. I'm glad however the issue wasn't that big, and good job getting your money back. :)

if that doesn't work try using recuva or some other deleted files recovery software, it might surprise you ;)