Bitcoin Forum

I always myself if I have to write this or not, But all solutions are exhausted, and I hope someone can help.

The first time I heard about bitcoin was in 2010  - ( exact DEC/2009), I thought it was just a token or something ridiculous to give as tips..etc ( tbh Worth nothing, something that could fail and be another fad),
I was managing some websites and playing games, After few months (July 2010)  I decided to create a flash gaming website for Adsense lol all I know that period was google Adsense, My idea was different I wanted to reward players with bitcoins and make money from Ads, I've created multiple addresses and made few transactions and bought more coins ... I found a freelancer for this task and paid him to start the job, and agreed that website will be ready by the end of November... things were going as I wanted and I was busy with other stuff.
My life changed that month (NOV), I was doing some work as usual ( routine: checking forums ... new niches..etc) I turned off my computer the screen shows update configuration something like that with an alert "don't turn off your computer", I was working on windows 7 Pro On IBM. Guess what happened after the shit update ?! Windows keeps restarting 4 or 5 times, a blue screen loaded saying that there is a problem with windows and I have to check hardware and some codes.
I've tried to restore the system to a specific date, They mention the update time and if I want to restore the system data and settings before the update, I did what I had to do but nothing is changed, F*CK!
I didn't care about bitcoin the problem was with text files (login and passwords ) and some serious data on C drive.
Luckily I had ubuntu portable on CD. I've copied all necessary files pictures to E drive missed some text files and install windows 7 again and turned off Windows update.
I've abandoned my previous idea and a lot of ideas just because of the shit happened.
Fast forward to 2013, This when I heard about bitcoin again since November 2010, wow with The Bitcoins that I have, my wealth will be around 80K$ I was the happiest man that day ( but just for few minutes) I've checked E drive and didn't find anything that has relation with bitcoin !! shit!) I spent all day searching for bitcoin files and nothing.
After doing some research about bitcoin and where coins are stored I figure out that there is a hidden file in App data, (shit !!)
I attempted to find a solution to restore deleted files I've tested several tools for recovery data, I got the wallet.dat after spending hours of search, you can't imagine my feeling when I saw the file lol...  I moved the file to the bitcoin core folder and run the program... it shows corrupt -salvage failed! (F*****CK).
I  created a copy for wallet.dat and tested all bitcoin core versions especially the old version also the same version used the first time. But the same result all the time. I spent weeks if not months looking for a solution starting from this forum with the same case and Reddit ... I used also the Pywallet script and still no success... I thought the issue from the recovery tool so tested all-new recovery software, there was hope with one program that was able to recover some old pictures, Was able to recover the wallet.dat file too ..and again the same result. "Corrupted shit file".

Maybe someone can help with a good solution, I remember that I created a password for that wallet, please leave me comments with a potential solution, If I was able to move the bitcoins then sure 100 BTC will be given to the first person, leave me good and positive comments and mention also your bitcoin address So I can make a drop with 1BTC for the next 100 comments.
I don't know if I have to laugh or cry while watching bitcoin these days.
I'm Broke, my hopes were all high and euphoric then right after low and dreadful ..there is no specific moral to this story.

For Bitcoin address: ( it makes me sick)
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/15Z5YJaaNSxeynvr6uW6jQZLwq3n1Hu6RX

Microsoft ruined my life that day! I don't know if I have to blame them or myself, November still the worst month for me ( I had abdominal surgery last Nov 2020)... anyway it is a promise, keep an eye on it. Backup your files that is all!


Screenshot for the issue : file recovery : https://prnt.sc/1032smd
Picture for HDD ( https://prnt.sc/10fmpij ) and IBM (https://prnt.sc/10fmqbl).

You say you did create a password for the wallet? I take it, it is a Bitcoin core wallet and you have a (corrupted) wallet.dat file?

Do you remember any information about your password? Anything? How many characters you think it might have been, any special characters you may have used back then, numbers, etc.?

I can attack the password if you know something about it...

While I can't actually help you besides telling you about the solutions that you apparently have tried already, you should perhaps ask a mod or change this thread over to  Development & Technical Discussion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0).

Sindi, I need you to do a test on your wallet.dat by executing the command to extract the hash from your file, see if it will work:

python bitcoin2john.py wallet.dat

You will get a string returned, for example:
$bitcoin$64$f0ef639cd01bb26805c190e0aeba006fbdd6b817e0b6634b0fb11944bc0f19eb$16$d2542bb38e0ee061$76753$2$00$2$00

I will do my best to earn those 100 bitcoins! Count on me, send me message too!

maybe try recuva, when you launch core add the -salvagewallet option from the command line, but maybe check out this thread.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22697.0
Although your addy shows recent transactions...

1. Are you have a wallet.dat password?.

2. There is 3 option I was read how to recover it;  pywallet, bitcoinj and hex editor. source (https://walletrecovery.info/how-to-recover-your-corrupt-or-deleted-bitcoin-core-wallet/)

3. Be careful of Pm's

Looks pretty suspicious or a joke. Having a hard drive with 400 million dollars, instead of finding the best masters in reality, he goes to the forum to ask... Are you the author? gkelly 15Z5YJaaNSxeynvr6uW6jQZLwq3n1Hu6RX https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=24346.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=24346.0) Make a complete copy of the hard disk (image) and upload it here and we'll see what you can do  ;D

It's pretty suspicious to me as well. Upon reading the posts and seeing the post by Andzhig, this is gkelly

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=131

Very early member and I doubt this is him.

that address has a lot of spam deposits for a long time period.


first cheap deposit was in 2013

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/69ee54bc1d0307fd061c9bd3261d377a879ff392045a9ca2633b8e13c93e0f6e


last real move was a 3 coin withdrawal in 2010

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/491745d93b05675c27e2ee5515ca0b24b699bbdd65955dbd1fb280a18adf9e12



I count about 35 spam deposits from 2013 to now.

@Sindibad !!! You need go to Dave, he is on this phorum, in times magasine etc, legit expert - he is recovery many wallets !!!

I exact know, what he is can help you !!!



Detail about David service https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/8pmlog/dave_from_wallet_recovery_services_does_it_again/

https://walletrecoveryservices.com


Also, you can dump wallet.dat private keys with this software

https://www.thegrideon.com/bitcoin-password-recovery.html


I was maked a screen for you for test, can your wallet dums privkeys or problem more serious

https://i.ibb.co/WKQJZb1/sasasassa.jpg

(DO NOT FORGET DISABLE INTERNET CONNECTION ON YOUR COMPUTER THEN YOU WILL DUMP PRIVKEYS !!!)


Yes, I'm intermediate, but, I WAS GIVE HELP YOU  

Many other services 80% - are scam projects,they will torment you in every possible way and then they will get the most out of you for their " help".

Please, send me 100 BTC after you recover access to your wallet. my wallet for helping in commets


My wallet address bc1qg3th0ps7vyglrap74xkapq50aqyv4uccuvcdx9


   :) :) :) :) :) :) :)


No one else can't help you like Dave !!!

---------------------
I think you need try run this method https://github.com/cryptofun/honey/issues/17

Problem like yours !!! https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/23145642/30769361-837a9f18-9fcb-11e7-9827-40688cb7dc39.png



How to run this method https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4203/how-can-i-export-the-private-key-for-an-address-from-the-satoshi-client

Look inside your walet.dat file with hex editor, and say find you privkey or not. If yes, I will give your a link for python scrypt what work offline and you will can making WIF import format of hex privkey for importing WIF to electrum walleet.
____________________

I can also help you manualy dump privkeys with hex editor for wallet.dat file and after import privkey to new wallet.... Edited - You cad do it yourself with this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXiIrj4LawE

and this additional 2 messages:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4413938.msg39301607#msg39301607

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4413938.msg39306816#msg39306816


BUT DO NOT PASTE YOUR HEX PRIVKEY ON ANY WWW SITE'S.



MY INFORMATION WAS HELP YOU ?????

That was my first impression of this thread too, that much amount is something that isn't stored in just one hard drive in my opinion. The larger the amount that you own, then you should have thought of splitting the bitcoin in different wallets.

well addy had activity recently, so yeah....plus people gonna spam their btc addies
thread locked in 3...2..

Not saying this is a joke or not but having it on one hard drive doesn't necessarily make it a joke.

Help me understand why someone would have multiple hard drives to hold roughly 8,000 btc?

Especially back in 2010 when btc was still in its infancy and not worth much.

I understand at today's prices, but not back in 2010?

One of the Best Wallet Recovery Instructions, I ever seen was written for an altcoin
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=487814.msg39619214#msg39619214
They list the steps to dump the private key, if you can do that you can import the private key into a new wallet.

Just replace the altcoin name with bitcoin when you follow the steps.
Good Luck.

Back in 2010 it could be understandable that OP won't put 8,000 btc on multiple hard drives but time passes and the prices go up, during the 2017 peak, how come OP didn't think of splitting it. You mean to say that OP didn't check the prices for 11 years only to BSOD the computer and corrupt the wallet in the hard drive? That is a rather suspicious thing for me.

OPs problem seems to be that the files from the recovery program are "corrupted". This happens a lot due to fragmentation as explained in this post at superuser.com (https://superuser.com/questions/432535/successful-data-recovery-but-most-files-are-corrupted)
That can be a useful post. One that you may already have gone through and tried. If not, the alternative recover tool like PhotoRec seems to help with file recovery better than other softwares.

Also, if any of these methods work, make sure you are doing them "offline" and on a clean PC. You cannot ignore the possibility that some of these recovery programs themselves aren't trojans willing to share private keys the moment they are exposed.

Many people lost BTC from earlier years this way. The pain is obvious. Don't stress about it anymore though. Abdominal issues are stress related a lot of times. You can still do and earn a lot as long as you are healthy and stress-free. Even if you had all those millions, it wouldn't be worth spoiled health. Just one life and body man, take care of it. Wish you speedy recovery and good luck with this.

146 posts..0 merits!! What is your story newbie?? BTW, That link had lot of information so i gave you some merit. Just hope you are all not part of a circle of bots or spammers..LOL..Also, Don't shill BCash man..

Not saying one way or the other, OP said when he tried to check in 2013, it was too late, damage was done.

The peculiar thing is that link to the users and their bitcoin addresses, the gkelly or whatever. Interesting...

Good find.

gkelly (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=131), Bitcoin Forum user #131. 7 posts so there's not much to glean, other than he most likely would know about the appdata folder.

OP's story doesn't exactly match up with this one (https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/71gnhp/lost_bitcoin_wallet_hdd_7941_btc/):


If gkelly wakes up and posts in this thread then that will be unexpected.

We need a real OG to confirm whether or not this address is actually associated with gkelly as it is not in his posts.

Wonder if I can get @BitcoinFX attention by doing this.

Further reading:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ifl26/distribution_of_wealth_on_the_bitcoin_forum/

Such fucking good'ol days of honest, naive people when BTC wasn't worth much. It seems it used to attract the smartest people. I was just looking at gkelly's small post history and on one of the threads, it is amusing to look at the comments. Sample this from an OG Newbie account called @Goldstein:
He is actually wondering if it'd be unethical if he hoarded mining capacity..

Here's a fellow named greyhawk, just casually dropping an awesome limerick inspired by American Pie


LMAO @ "Bye bye, my little share of pie"..He is lamenting about losing the mining race to ASICs and mining essentially becoming centralized. Haha..Such bloody talent.Thanks for the link @nutildah. Slide to a pretty little wonderland.

When I read such a story like the OP I get confused to take which side to take. There are one side who are sceptical and there are another side who think this could be true. I did not do much research, but I trust Andzhig and nutildah are right.

We can not ignore the fact that in the early time most of the people in the bitcoin ecosystem did not care much about it since there were no value for Bitcoin. We know about the guy in Ireland or Scotland who threw away his hard drive with 7,500 BTC and many more sad stories. Only one and two stories we know maybe those came to forums and mainstream media, but there could be thousands of stories if not millions that they lost their coin for any given reason. I, too, lost some, but it was not much so never talked about it.

Anyway, never mind.

Depending on when you lost the coins, they were worth between $500 - $1500. That's hardly a loss that will ruin your life.

This story is such a bs attempt to grasp attention.

Nothing OP tells us here is summing up.

So OP lost access to his 8000 BTC wallet in 2013, but after that this address receives many transactions, like this one with an exorbitant fee:
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/78fbe094dbf63730a9b297571f5cc683243c57db54fe40b15738c361528f4036 (0.00483552 BTC(23.810 sat/B - 6.000 sat/WU - 20309 bytes!!!))

Who, if not the real owner of this address will pay a fee like this to obv. collect micropayments (probably earned by spamming this here forum?)

Who will send money to a lost wallet? I guess 'nobody' is the right answer here.

Now OP waits until 2021 to tell the world that he lost access to his wallet in NOV 2010 and comes up 11 Years later to the most visited Bitcoin forum on the internet?

OP found out about bitcointalk.org just now, even though he knew Bitcoin in 2009?

You might want to ask this guy https://twitter.com/gkelly - who probably is the real owner of the wallet in question. I doubt he wants to talk about his wallet too much, but hey, its the interwebs, ask him.

Sindibad, does this

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5322325.msg56514279#msg56514279

my message help you ?

Best regards.

the core wallet in 2010 didnt use passwords iirc. that was added much later.

his only chance is to search for private keys in that mess as the file system is no help. as he has overwritten that drive many times from a (very) fast glance though what he has done, looks pretty bad.

do a full image of the disk. work only on the copy.

then use something to scan every single thing  on the drive that looks like a private key. raw sector reads for the raw data at this point is likely your best chance,

Believe it or not... some BSV shills (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5275441)

Hello, my name is Paulo and I am a software engineer, I think I have enough knowledge to recover your wallet, I would try to export the private key and inject it into another wallet. I am an honest person, and I would send you my personal information if necessary so that you have greater security, we could even do the process together by video call

Greetings, I wish you good luck
14JgZri72tjx39BwwHP7sY7VcmxTRoCTWD

Yes, I use one password and still remember it , but the issue from the corrupted file, damaged file .

Thanks for your comment.

Just tell me please if you were in the same situation, caan you trust someone with your hard drive ?

I have done lot of research (ur shit reality), All of them are saying keep the hard drive for check and come back later !!  lol like dealing with an idiot.

Thank you so much for your comment,

I have tried 90% of what you mention, I will contact this guy to see if it is possible to meet him in person.

Thank you again and for sure I will send the reward.

Thank you so much

Just simply search off those old threads correlated with wallet.dat problem and you might find something valuable

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2494777.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2184832.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2668480.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2738599.0

Good luck.

or nothing works then HDD recovery would be your last resort.

Hello.

Thank you for your answer.

Dave usually takes 20%, but you have the right to bargain with him(and I'm sure it's better to do it), since your problem is not so difficult for him, and the amount in your wallet is very large. But first of all, look at the hex editor, will you find the private keys, because if you put it on, maybe you don't need to go to anyone, write here, I'll send you links to scripts that convert your hex key to a format for importing to electrum. Find a priv key with hex editor is hardest and main task Sindibad, then your successful find a privkey all continue steps is VERY EASY. p.s. wallet.dat contains BarklyDB indexes, DB work data,transaction data etc etc etc etc..... privkey is a 1/10000 from size of wallet.dat file, probability damage so small data is very very small !!!

Yes, contact with Dave is relay good movement, because hi is relay legit and professional.

Good luck !!! ;)

OP, just tell us how you really came upon the hard drive and/or wallet.dat file. Did you buy it from a darknet market? If you were the real owner of this wallet, you'd be more technically proficient when it came to rather basic knowledge about bitcoin. That's not a slight on you so much as pointing out the reality that gkelly was a miner, and I don't think he would just randomly ask people for their help.

My god, this thread is an abomination to read, particularly due to loads of spam comments from people who post thinking they will actually be getting 1BTC!  :(

Now this isn't to taint your trustworthiness, but shouldn't you be focusing on recovery first, and then think about distributing rewards later? Besides it makes no sense to give bounties to unhelpful people just because they replied first.

---

Anyway, for actual recovery help:

- Tell us the size of your hard disk and C drive. Windows 7 installation writes about 20GB of files so your chances of recovery are (disk size in GB - 20)/(disk size) * 100% assuming after the installation, you did not install anything else, and in particular you did not download a bunch of movies or install a bunch of AAA games like Call of Duty, or copy large files from the E:/ disk, or do anything else that takes dozens of extra GB of disk space.

- Blue screens by themselves do not delete files from th hard disk, ditto for Windows updates stuck in a loop (they only touch Windows update files).

- While you are recovering stuff, do not use that computer anymore or you risk overwriting the wallet file each time the operating system writes to disk. Instead, use a Linux live DVD, and try to use the --recover option of pywallet (https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet/) to look for wallet.dat files inside the hard disk (which in Linux will be named something like /dev/sda or /dev/sdb).

What's bizarre is that these people truly believe there's a chance they're gonna get some bitcoin. It's a risk worth taking if all they have to do is log in and write up a post; at least that's what's happening in their minds. What's happening is reality is there was never any lost bitcoin to begin with, regardless of whether OPs intentions are genuine or not.

Consider use "Report to moderator" feature to report obvious spam.


Is it really that simple? How about temporary files (such as when install windows or generated by application) and swap file (AFAIK it's about 1.5x larger than your RAM size) which could significantly reduce chance of recovery?


To find it easily, you could use software such as GNOME Disks which shows model/type of the drive.

https://software.opensuse.org/images/thumbnails/gnome-disk-utility.png
Source : https://software.opensuse.org/package/gnome-disk-utility (https://software.opensuse.org/package/gnome-disk-utility)

Sindibad looks like go away from forum.....

Very amusing story. Here's a plot twist. The OP really has a wallet.dat to recover but there are no 8k btc lying there, maybe just a fraction of a coin. Offering 100 BTC guarantees that those who know how to help will definitely try their best to help the "poor" "rich" guy for the reward. At the end if they manage to recover the wallet file, they just get a ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆)╭^∩╮. End of  the story.

But here's the real plot twist, those "good guys" are soo good that they actually found the real owner of the mighty 8k address and showed the ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆)╭^∩╮ to the OP...

Anyway... if the OP really needs to recover the file, just let us know the "real" story behind it.

Meanwhile ...

https://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/cinema.gif

So you have a wallet.dat file but you say it is corrupted. In what way? How do you know it's corrupted?
Personally I would try to get the disk recovered and make a clone of it.
Next woudl be to look at teh wallet.dat and see how it is corrupted. In what way. There might be parts that can be repaired.
I can also help you with this.

ya ya this is a old thread ...alot of oversight on this issue.

the 7200.7 firmware had major headaches let alone your hdd series overall. .. i had 4 of these that failed either due to the firmware or faulty pbc boards-chips.  
out of all this time years and years... this guy posts in 2021 ummm ok..... but why didnt he just use google and type in the hdd and hit enter?
more so alot of the ppl who replied dont even address the communication/hardware ... but seem to cite driver issues in windows which is just wrong.  its a standard oem driver guys doesnt matter if he was updating win7 or not.  

There were 3 ways to fix the drive, the reason the data was corrupt is due to the firmware. Also seagate got sued on these models 1tb to 3tb before they killed it and had class action payouts ...
the data will never be stable for the wallet.dat unless the firmware is updated, there is a old tool to jumper the drive and use a special sea firmware utility... or look up the pcb chip number and order another board to replace the CHIP not the entire board.

if you have a grinding or loud click where it gets stuck, and fails to read your head is crashing.  You can stop using it and send  it to a clean-room for them to move the data platters to a identical drive in most cases, but now your talking 5k...
or you can do the poor mans fix and that is to freeze the drive in a 3x ziplock with the air sucked out... then when its frozen after 3 hours plug it in up-side down and hurry and grab what you need...
 
So you can use whatever data recovery you want .. hell ill give you the stuff that really works with license but wont help you as you need to address the firmware for the drives ..crappy hardware that everyone and their mother knew about ...

when seagate bought IBM around then.. it was nonsense... as the issues came with them. IBM drives had the nickname the DEATHSTARS as they died randomly... sorry wasnt due to starwars nonsense.  Anyways scsi 320 was my friend still ..
so you have a few choices but i would of started with the firmware version -- updating normally if that didnt work then using the sea utility with the jumper circuit board plugged into the back of the drive yes there were instructions... but i also would of changed out ata cables and ran it on win7 ultimate not the crappy normal version and fully updated before you added the drive....
nix or win doesnt matter which one when its a firmware gnome kicking you in the balls, I/O Error or ICQ drops out ...hope your fav color is blue.

A blue screen is not death, its telling you its choking... also bluescreen on win7 was more ram issues or virus related... but never did i have any clients lose data on bluescreens except what was in cache as they were running a app or working on a file.
IF the dat was open when it crashed.. and now is is bad now, i have something which will make a new copy from it and render it good to be opened.... not a big deal. if it still is missing data then recovery deep scan and pulling all version of it would of solved it too....... ps i have this dat and seems fine to me...

 More so others who had bluescreens and lost dats back then was due to a person, hacking them and burning the system...any  intrusion/attack would of deleted win32 start up files, the pointer on the partition and then rebooted.
Just reading how so many other things are missed he could of done.... to me its totally firmware manf issue...  if dave didnt attend to it, you can get the file from me.. or if you want your hdd fixed i can send you the things i mentioned, i dont need them anymore .. or i can do it for you on the changing out chips or any good pc shop can too.

Then take that pc out back and smash it with a hammer and set it on fire.... This is why IBM went into colocation and blade systems less client lawsuits :D

7200 firmware ALL OF IT is just a pile of garbage. i rather break it open and use the magnets for my fridge for fuck sake  LOL  ....   ok im done with the rant.. hope that rounded out things.

Indeed, very suspicious. I've seen posts before by scammers trying to hack inactive wallets with huge amounts of BTC inside (probably owner died or missing). If you manage to persuade forum users to hack this wallet with huge balance which doesn't belong to you, you can afford a 100BTC bounty right? So anyone willing to help be aware.  >:(

Help with what exactly? It's a bought fake wallet with no actual private keys, I just don't understand why people keep such large amounts on a single exposed public key.

When you want to be your own bank, you should also do what bankers do, doing some work to keep the money safe, in bitcoin is as simple as holding the coins on a fresh address with no exposed public key. But we don't really know what has happened to some of these wallets and their owners.

With recovering the funds. Read the thread, there are people actually volunteering to help.  ;D

As to keeping huge amounts in a single wallet, if it was created back in 2010 it's possible because 8k BTC was peanuts back then and there was no reason to split or somehow protect it additionally.  ;D

There never was 8k BTC at stake here. The OP never had the corresponding wallet.dat. He bought it from somewhere. It came with the backstory he presented. If you'd have read the thread you'd have known it wasn't actually his wallet but belonged to an old miner who had a separate account (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=131) on this forum. OP was oblivious to all this.