Bitcoin Forum

Hello, I'm new to the entire bitcoin scene. So yesterday I sent some funds to my receiving address listed in my bitcoin knots wallet while it was in the process of syncing. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough hard drive space and had to restart the syncing process on a separate drive. As a result, my wallet no longer had that receiving address when I rebooted the system. I was wondering if there is a way to recover my funds. I have the receiving address and the hash ID, i don't know if that helps me.

the address and the txid won't help you...

IF you still have access to the original drive, just copy the wallet.dat from the old drive to the new drive (make a backup copy of both wallet.dat's first) and restart bitcoin knots (potentially with the rescan argument).

IF you erased the hard drive you used to install bitcoin knots the first time, immediately stop using it, and find a suitable recovery software, and hope you're able to recover the wallet.dat file.

Yea I already checked to see if I could use system recovery, but I didn't have any states available to recover to. So I guess I'm screwed?

You could always try running a recovery tool like Recuva (https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva) to see if you have any files named wallet.dat from that certain data recoverable. If not, then you are indeed in a pretty bad position. You just need to wish that you have not overwritten the file of yours.

However you could always try opening console and entering the following to see if anything happens:


If you are in luck, you will receive a string of random numbers and letters as output. However i do not think this is very like, but it could be an UI bug.
I'd try this method before trying any recovery tools.

Is there a specific reason you are using knots?
Knots is a core fork which does update its codebase from core regularly, and adds additional features core doesn't have included yet.
As a newcomer you should stick to core (https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/desktop/windows/bitcoincore/ (https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/desktop/windows/bitcoincore/)). Especially since you probably won't need these additional features.

And if you don't intend to specifically contribute to the network health with a full node (which stores the whole blockchain), you also might consider using a lightweight wallet (e.g. electrum (https://electrum.org/#home)).
These do not store the whole blockchain and query an online service to retrieve your balance. Both wallets do store the private keys locally.




Does this mean you have formatted your hard drive?

Windows' in-built system recovery won't help you there. Do as mocacinno suggested and use a recovery software to get your deleted files back.

Mind explaining what happened to your first hard drive (where you initially tried to install knots) ? Is it a HDD or SSD ?

It's a laptop SSD with very little space, which is why I had to restart the syncing process on my second drive. I  tried using recuva and I was able to restore some files from the old bitcoin folder, but now they're saved in a format that I guess the bitcoin knots app doesn't recognize, so it just attempts to rebuild rather than continue the syncing process with the incomplete data.

OP never said his (first) SSD was damaged, just limited space and he doesn't see the receiving address after reboot
so I think the original wallet still intact, and need no recovery at all
@mortamuerte have you tried Sellingaccs suggestion?
try running knots then go to Help > Debug > Console and do what Sellingaccs said

I doubt that will work. If they have moved the location of the Bitcoin data directory (ie. "restarted syncing process on a separate drive"), then the default location for "wallet.dat" will have moved to that same location.

The most likely scenario is what mocacinno has described... they now have TWO wallet.dat's

1. C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin\wallet.dat
and
2. Location\on\OtherDrive\Bitcoin\wallet.dat

This would explain why the receiving address is not being displayed when they run Bitcoin Knots now. If this is indeed the case, then OP simply needs to locate the original wallet.dat and put it into the new Bitcoin data directory.

This can be problematic on Windows, as by default: The AppData directory is hidden... and "known" file extensions are usually hidden by default... so "wallet.dat" file will usually show as just "wallet" :-\

Try this to get "AppData" folder to display: How to Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 7, 8, or 10 (https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/show-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-vista/)(specifically the "Protected Operating System Folders" tip)
and this to get windows to display file extenstions (like ".dat"): How to Make Windows Show File Extensions (https://www.howtogeek.com/205086/beginner-how-to-make-windows-show-file-extensions/)

Unfortunately I knew where the original wallet.dat was, I first tried to move the entire folder to the other drive, and when the process started over again I accidentally erased the original wallet.dat file and the new data overwrote it. I tried using recuva to get those files back, but now they're in a different format that the app doesn't recognize, so it erases the files and rebuilds it from fresh.

Never thought his HD is damaged, but since he mentioned he has tried to use the system recovery tool i have assumed he might have either deleted the files or formatted the drive.
Turned out to be the case.  :-\




SSD's are quite tricky when restoring erased data. I am not sure how big the chances are with recuva.
What file extension does the recovered file have? And what size ?
You might be able to use pywallet (https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet). But it is not being maintained for quite some time now and i don't know whether it works with knots files.

As far as I'm aware, neither Bitcoin Core nor Bitcoin Knots will "overwrite" a wallet.dat. If either of these find a wallet.dat that they can't read, you'll get an error telling you the file is corrupted, but it won't overwrite it.

You must be talking about the "blocks" files (blk****.dat)

However, given that you "moved" the original data folder and then accidentally deleted the wallet file from the new location... Your chances of recovery are not great. :-\

If you can't find any trace of the wallet.dat from either the original drive, or the copy that you accidentally deleted from the new location... Your coins are effectively lost. :(

As far as the recovered files being in the wrong format... The only file you need to worry about is "wallet.dat"... Everything else can be downloaded again. Without the original wallet.dat, your coins are gone