Bitcoin Forum

Hello guys,
 Ok I have a computer obviously. I had 78 BTC in my wallet. I by accidently deleted my account on my computer which had my btc on it.

 So now I don't have my btc! How can I get them back?  :'(

 Help! Anyway to get them back? Yes or no?

  :'( :'( :'( :'(

By "account," do you mean you deleted the Bitcoin client?

How exactly did you accidentally delete it, can you remember?

You could try and use a tool like Recuva made by Piriform to try and recover the wallet.dat off your hard drive. But I'm not sure what you mean by deleted your account. Could you clarify what was deleted and what state your computer is currently in?

Like I deleted my account on my computer. The user account on the computer I deleted it. What do I do?  :'(

 My computer is fine. I just don't have the btc.

Have you set up a new account to log into? If so I think you might be able to recover the wallet.dat.

 Yes I am on my computer I made a new account I am Administrator. So of course I am logged into this new account but when I clicked my bitcoin client I don't have my btc. How can I recover the wallet.dat?

Did you create a backup wallet.dat?

Turn off your computer immediately! Then boot from another system and recover deleted wallet.dat file using specialized software.
If you continue to use this hard drive - you may lose your wallet with all your bitcoins forever! It can be overwritten by new data.

No I never had time. Like I made the 78 btc within 6 hours. I then got off. Got back on and by accidentally deleted my computer user account. Anyway to recover or no?  :'(

 What specialized software do I use?  ???

The wallet.dat file is located in [Username]\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin. You can get to your account's folder by typing "%APPDATA%\Bitcoin" (without the quotes) in the address bar of Windows Explorer. But if that folder and the files in it were deleted, you have to use file recovery software...

 All it shows is the now files.
 How do I file recovery software?

http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

There is also freeware out there, just look on Google.

-Samwb123

By the way, check your C:\Users\ directory (or C:\Documents and Settings\ for Windows XP). Can you see your previous user's directory?

Try Recuva Free (http://www.filehippo.com/download_recuva) or something like that.

I would use Recuva. Just google it then install it. Once you have it open select other as the file type you are looking for and pointing to the directory C:\Users\ and have it scan that for deleted files. Once it's done look through the list of files it finds and see if the wallet.dat is there and then restore the file.

You did not give us much info about your system. Is it Windows or Linux?

If it is windows:
on XP machine wallet.dat lives in "C:\Documents and Settings\<login>\Application Data\Bitcoin" Check whether it still exists. If not try to recover it using "specialised software":

• http://ntfsundelete.com/ (http://ntfsundelete.com/)
• http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

Uh. An unpleasant incident. :-\

Paper wallet is king.

Or, if you are really, really dedicated, commit the address and private key to memory.


BRAIN WALLET

Hehehe. Rain wallet.

Ha ha ha... wow, you must have not wasted ANY time, I fixed that the second I posted

BRAN WALLET

keeps you regular

I want to know how you made 78 BTC in 6 hours. :)

Me Too!

After you get this resolved, if you can, use an online wallet like blockchain instead.

ITT a skiddie lost 78 bitcoins that took him 6 hours to steal because he deleted his windoze user account while trying to cover his tracks...

classy!

78 coins in 6 hours?  If he had the technical expertise to get that going on a bunch of systems, seems like he wouldn't have made such a silly mistake.  Also, how can you not have time to back up wallet.dat. 

1.Insert thumb drive.
2.Copy wallet.dat on to said thumbdrive
3.Eject said thumb drive

Maybe 2 minutes at maximum if you are having a problem finding wallet.dat.

If it is gone forever...
Congratulations, you have just made Bitcoins more rare.
So they should then be worth more.

So we should thank him?

Immediately stop using the hard drive. If you must have a working system, make a disk image of the drive and use the image (use software like ghost 11); pull the drive and stop using it. Every disk write is a chance that the area of the drive that held the bitcoin private keys will be overwritten.

The private keys of bitcoin addresses can be recovered off the hard drive after the files are deleted. However, Windows Vista/7 defrags once a week and will quickly overwrite unallocated areas if you don't yourself.


A wallet where you memorize 101 51-character private keys?

You memorize a mnemonic.

Let me help you understand the joke: http://rodneyolsen.net/2009/12/r-i-p-the-real-rain-man.html

You really should backup!

I have a related question. If his bitcoins are lost forever, does that mean we are going to end up using smaller and smaller fractions of bitcoins in the future as this continues to happen (and it will I am sure)? What is the theoretical smallest fraction bitcoins could handle? Is there anyway to tell how many coins are offline and/or lost compared to how many are floating around in the PtP network?

That is correct, for a different reason than what you might expect. Deflation from 'losing' Bitcoins is negligible; what really causes deflation over time is increased demand for Bitcoins and not many new Bitcoins being mined.


0.00000001 Bitcoins (1/100,000,000 of a Bitcoin) is the smallest unit that it the current system can handle.


Not really that I know of. No one knows if you have deleted the wallet file - only that the Bitcoins contained in that wallet have not been spent yet.