Lost ~5.256BTC on Electrum wallet file. Any help would be appreciated.

[MillionsBTCdev]

I just lost approx. 5.256BTC on my Electrum wallet. How?

First, I use the older version which is electrum 1.9.8.

My default_wallet file is getting bigger and slower because of multiple txs and addresses, so i decided to create a new wallet and send my btc there.. So here is the detailed description of what happened.

1. I opened two Electrum programs. Lets call it Elec1 and Elec2.

2. They both will open the default_wallet file. So i see my bitcoins on both Electrum.

3. On Elec2, I clicked New/Restore, It will open a save file dialog. I wanted my New wallet to be the default_wallet when it opens. So on the save file dialog, I made a backup of the old default_wallet by copying and pasting it. Then i deleted the default_wallet.

4. I named my new wallet as default_wallet, and click save.

5. After going trough the process of creating wallet, i finally created my new wallet.

6. I copied one of the new address on my new wallet, and using Elec1, I sent my bitcoin to that new address.Everything went well, I received my bitcoins on the new wallet address.

7. My Elec2 got stuck on synchronizing, So to be able to test my new wallet, i took the private key of the address that got my bitcoins, and took another address from the list, and sent my bitcoins using coinb.in. It went fine and smoothly, i got my bitcoins on the other address.

8. I then closed Elec1.. And this is where the problem occurred.

9. My Elec2, was still stuck on synchronizing, and every time i get this issue, i just open another wallet file, then go back and open the default wallet again.

10.  So i opened another wallet file(not the default_wallet), Then i went back and opened default_wallet again.. And to my surprise! This is is the old default wallet. It has my old addresses. And it does not contain any of the new addresses or my bitcoins.

What happened was, When i closed Elec1, it overwrite the default_wallet file containing my new addresses.

And sadly, i did not also backup my new seed..

I have read before that it is possible to get the master private key of the wallet if i have one of the private key of its child and the master public key. But i only have the private key of the child and not the master public key. I'm not sure if this is the same case, but any help would be appreciated.

[Quickseller]

What address exactly did you send the BTC to using coinb.in

[MillionsBTCdev]

The address that i sent my bitcoins is https://blockchain.info/address/1C5psAw1MNetyEdYto6HX4r3o32mARSBCN

The bitcoins are from https://blockchain.info/address/19FkJ11Cr6eRZCJYJi2nBk8NijgVecvYq1

And i used coinb.in to send that tx.

Both addresses are on the same wallet file that was overwritten.

I do have the priv key for 19FkJ11... But not for 1C5psA.

[Quickseller]

What operating system are you using? If possible respond from another computer and do not use the computer that had the wallet file overwritten.

[MillionsBTCdev]

Windows 10.

[Quickseller]

Windows 10.

okay, give me some time to see if I can find something that might be able to recover old files with Windows 10. I saw your thread on Reddit and it looks like you are using NTFS.

[Bluewaffle]

damn any progress or anything thats a bummer just seein a wallet with your coin

[MillionsBTCdev]

Nope, i have a good feeling that its gone now... oh well..

[Quickseller]

Based on my research, it does not appear that you are able to derive any additional of you private keys from only a single private key associated with you seed. You will need at the very least, the xpub key plus a single private key in order to calculate your other electrum private keys (at this point you can essentially "guess" the position of the private key in order to correctly calculate the other private keys fairly easily).

If you had accessed a block explorer while looking at your xpub key (eg you went to blockchain.info/xpub/xpub661MyMwA...) then you can look at you browsing history to find your xpub key (assuming your history has not been deleted).

I am not familiar with the directly that electrum keeps your wallet files by default, however if your wallet file was stored in the Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, Desktop and OneDrive folders then it appears that Windows will automatically backup your files when changes are made to them. It appears this feature needs to be turned "on" and it is unclear if the feature is "on" by default. Please see this page for more information on how to recover your files this way.

If windows has not automatically backed up you wallet file, then you are going to want to use some kind of data recovery software to try to recover your wallet file. I do not use windows, and as a result I would not be able to properly vet any specific software for me to recommend that you use. Doing a quick google search, I was able to find this website that appears to be selling data recovery software as well as this site that appears to compare various data recovery software programs.

It is important to note that if you download anything from a developer that you do not proactively trust then it is possible that you may be downloading malware, or something else that may otherwise damage your computer. You will need to do your own due dilligance to decide if any program found on either of the above links are safe to use. I do not have any reason to believe that any program in the above links contain anything malicious, however as mentioned above, I have not been able to vet any of the programs.

The longer you use your computer, the greater the chances that your wallet will end up being deleted/overwritten. If you have a lot of free space on your hard drive, then the chances of your data being overwritten would somewhat decrease, however you should certainly attempt to recover your files as soon as possible. If you can then you should download any software that you are going to download, and install any software that you are going to install on a hard drive that is separate from the hard drive that contains(ed) the wallet file that has gone missing.

If it turns out that you are unable to recover your wallet, then I hope this is not a lot of money for you, and hopefully this will serve as a lesson to have multiple backups of your wallet available before you entrust your wallet with any BTC

[UfoRia]

How about just using system restore that's built into the OS? I think it's Control Panel -> Recovery? I don't have any 10 machines at home, so not sure on the exact menu options.


Ufo

[anthonycamp]

i really hope you recover but its getting intense and i have no solution for recover as i never use storage for such amounts.
any step can make you got aprox or away from them be carefull in files.