Bitcoin Forum

Hi
As of today Electrum 1.9.8 isn't opening, after the icon is clicked it looks like it's going to open but nothing happens. Also it doesn't show up in Windows Task Manager. I've tried a couple of methods detailed in some other threads but in case I did them incorrectly I'd like to proceed as if I haven't. I've lost the seed but know the password, and if anyone's help proves successful I'd be happy to give them 1 btc or so.

Thanks

OS is Windows 7 Professional if that helps.

Do you have a second machine?  Copy the wallet.dat file to that machine and try opening it.

How about telling us what you've tried so we don't waste time repeating ourselves? It's very hard to mess up finding a folder and deleting one file in it.

Would that be the default_wallet file? If so I've tried that and the other electrum (on another machine) didn't seem to recognize that file as when I clicked file-open nothing happened.

Sure, I copied the default_wallet file to another computer and tried to open with electrum on that machine. I also deleted the config file but that had no effect. Thanks for the response so far.

I've created a version of 1.9.8 for you that includes a debug window. Please make a screenshot of any potential error messages you find there.

Download Electrum 1.9.8-dev (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/374/electrum/electrum-1.9.8-dev.exe) and the signature (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/374/electrum/electrum-1.9.8-dev.exe.asc).

Now before you open it please go to the official Electrum site (https://electrum.org/community.html) verify https is enabled and the domain is correct. Then look for my pgp key (Maran Hidskes) there and verify the signature. Here is a step-by-step guide for doing that on windows (http://www.masterkeylinux.com/index.php/documents/7-mk-documents/47-verify-pgp-win).

Only after completing these steps run the app and give me the information it gives you.

1. Copy the default_wallet file to a safe place while you do this, just in case you mess something up.

2. Open default_wallet with Wordpad. (Not Notepad)

3. Search for the word "seed" and tell me if you see something like this:


If you see this, then your bitcoins are safe. This is your seed encrypted using AES with your password.


Tell me if you found this. I can help you recover your bitcoins if you have this.

Nothing appears, just an empty document. Take it the btc are not recoverable?

What other files have you got in the electrum folder? Give us a list of files and folders or post a screenshot. For the record electrum folder is \Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Local\Electrum

Also do you have a copy of that folder or your wallet backed up somewhere?

This is a printscreen of what came up - http://postimg.org/image/4ys7re7fp/. Thanks

I agree with Abdu.

Please tell us every file and folder that exists in your x:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Electrum folder (where x is your system drive and <user> is your windows username)

Then also tell us every file that exists in the "wallets" folder within the above folder.

If you can, maybe take a screenshot, we can see what you are dealing with.


This doesn't look too good... but if you have another wallet file or copy of the file... perhaps it's there...?

I've now moved back all the files that were in the electrum folder originally which consists of a cert folder (no changes were made to this folder), wallets folder containing default_wallet file and the blockchain headers and config files.

If you don't have another wallet file in that folder then the only option is to look at backups. Do you have backups? Another thing you can try is Windows system restore to restore to an earlier time.

No I don't have a backup, I'll try a system restore. Thanks

Tried the sytsem restore, still not working. Any other ideas anyone?

If you opened default_wallet and it's an empty file your wallet is gone unless there is an other file in your wallets folder. Please make a screenshot of your wallets folder contents with filesize showing so we can know if there is anything salvable.

http://postimg.org/image/yb1gjwj77/
http://postimg.org/image/7gclvvnd7/

The wallet file is not empty and you still have the blockchain_headers and config files. Delete blockchain_headers and config files and run electrum. If it still doesn't start up then open up the default_wallet file in notepad and see if you can see the seed that dabura667 was talking about before. Notepad is a text editor while wordpad is a word processor. I think you'll have better luck with notepad.

I think I know why you "saw nothing"

Did you drag default_wallet and drop it on Wordpad? This does not open the file. This is how you paste images.
You have to click "Open" to open files...

but either way... I just remembered wallet files don't have line breaks anyways, so Notepad is fine.


Open the default_wallet with Notepad and try finding the "seed" area.

http://0bin.net/paste/aOXhNOA+aaO06p91#NyNjnyWkEt0Tga6PxCTgASmMcyChXKFkz+13SPM7F86

Here's a simple script I set up to decrypt the seed. You just need to replace the 'a' part at the top with your password and the '<seed_gibberish>' with your actual seed.

Then just run that script through python.

You should get some letters and numbers that look like this:

If it doesn't look like this, and it's a bunch of invalid characters (ie not letters and numbers, but weird machine code looking stuff) then your password or your seed is wrong (remember to copy over the entire seed including = signs etc. and remember that both your password and the encrypted seed must be surrounded by ' apostrophes.

So if your password was cat:

etc.

Once you have this 32 character long hexadecimal string of numbers and letters, you can actually paste that into Electrum's "Seed restore" box as-is and it will restore your bitcoins (you don't need to know the word phrase. The word phrase is just masking this hex number, and Electrum can recognize it.

Rename default_wallet into default_wallet2 or something, then try starting Electrum. It should show up with a wizard. paste in the hex string you got, and your bitcoins should be restored.

As far as where you can run the code... you could download Python and install it, then run the script on your computer.

Or if you want to trust me, I can compile the script into an exe file for running on your windows machine.

If you'd like to download Python, click here.

https://www.python.org/download

Download one of the two following:

32-bit Windows 7 = Python 2.7.8 Windows Installer (Windows binary -- does not include source)
64-bit Windows 7 = Python 2.7.8 Windows X86-64 Installer (Windows AMD64 / Intel 64 / X86-64 binary [1] -- does not include source)

I am not sure if the script works with Python 3... which is why I am not recommending it. (I have 2.7.8)

I wasn't clear, I deleted those files  and tried to run electrum. It didn't work then I moved them back to try something else. I've opened the deafault_wallet with Notepad (not wordpad) as suggested twice now and it comes up empty.

What's the size (in bytes) of this default_wallet?

According to the screenshot you posted the default_wallet file is over 100KB in size. So how can it be empty?

I have no idea, just that when I open the default_wallet file in Notepad no text appears. Am I missing something?

Just to be sure download a code editor like Sublime text (http://www.sublimetext.com/2) and use that to open the file. Do you have an encrypted seed?

No I lost the seed and this is what I get when I open the default wallet file in sublime text - http://postimg.org/image/sdrt1c keh/.

wow...

over 100kb of 0x00 bytes.

Either this is a troll, or someone made an elaborate virus that steals bitcoins and then writes over the file with 0x00 bytes...

Yeah... that file will not restore anything.

I'm sorry, but unless you have the file with the actual data in it, or can somehow recover it by other methods... (Windows Restore?... I don't think that would restore it, but you could try.)

It would seem like your bitcoins are gone.

sorry for your loss.

Again, the lesson is: cold storage.

I've talked earlier to Eskimo via private messages because there was a restriction for me as a new user to reply here, but now I am able to publish it here, which I think would be appropriate:

Eskimo told me in response (in part):
and also asked about data recovery.

To that I replied with the advice that the chance of success can be maximized with the help of someone with good experience and tools for data recovery who would need to have access to the physical disk or computer to do their thing. I also proposed a plan that is somewhat less ideal but perhaps simple enough to try on one's own for searching for and recovering a deleted file or a string pattern. I mentioned the fact that files in restore points are stored with compression (on NTFS partitions) which complicates searching for string patterns.
I also mentioned the Previous Versions feature in Windows 7 (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85679-previous-versions-restore-files-folders.html (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85679-previous-versions-restore-files-folders.html)) which relies on restore points, but should in theory be better suited to finding out definitively whether there is an older version of a file in an existing (not deleted) restore point or not, compared to reverting the whole system using System Restore.
I did not receive a reply to this message so I was wondering what has happened regarding the wallet.

Now more questions come to mind that I didn't think to ask earlier, but which might just lead to a breakthrough. When you first created the wallet in Electrum, in the first step it shows you the seed in the form of 12 words. It asks you to write them down somewhere and you have to have done that or copied them or memorized them, because in the very next step it asks you to enter them again, just to verify that you've completed the previous step. How did you complete these steps and is there any chance that you have those 12 words written or stored somewhere?

Electrum stores the seed and the rest of the wallet data in the same file. It's not a good idea because the file is written over with new transaction data and there is risk of losing the entire file in case of a crash.
Better would be to keep the seed in a read only file and application state in a writable one.

It seems to me now, wallets should be directories.  The directory should have a read only seed file and another file that contains data that changes which are related to that seed.

Ive got exactly the same problem like OP...
But i found that line in my default Wallet...

I even wrote Abdu an PM... i hope someone can help to recover my founds,

These instructions are for 1.9.8.

If you know the password and have the encrypted seed you can recover your wallet as follows:

You haven't told us your operating system. Find the electrum folder and rename it to something else. Location of the folder:

https://electrum.orain.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Where_is_my_wallet_file_located.3F

Now when you run electrum it will try to create a new wallet. Just go through the motions to create a wallet.

With electrum running go to the console tab and enter the following:


Replace <yourseed> with the encrypted seed (don't include "Seed:" ) and <yourpassword> with your password.

It should output 32 hex digits which is your seed decrypted. Now create a new wallet file to house your restored wallet:

- File menu > new/restore. Pick a directory and enter a file name for the new wallet file and then click save. It will then show the usual wallet creation/restore "wizard".

- Select to restore a wallet and paste in your 32 hex digit seed.

- In future to open this wallet file use file > open.

If you are on Linux you don't have to use the electrum console. You can use python directly from the command line. I'm not sure whether electrum on other OS installs python. Does it?

Hey so much thx for help.
I allready delete the Blockchainh header and the config .file and its running again :D

I havent got any conection now, but i think that is a problem from Electrum,isnit?

After doing this, remember to delete the command history from your electrum config file.

On Windows:

Go to C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Electrum and open up "config" file with a text editor.

Search for "pw_decode(" without quotes and you should find something that looks like the below...


Delete that from your config file so that the commands before and after are properly serapated by commas.

In the above example you want to delete the following:


Which will leave you with

the ... are the commands you performed before and after.

Then after you deleted, save the file.

Anybody else have conection ?