Help! Electrum wallet file is corrupted.

[Bitcoins1337sam]

Hi, sry for bad english, ill do my best. :-) 
For about 5 years ago i used Electrum wallet (offline wallet) to keep my bitcoins safe.


My computer crashed and I had to reinstall all windows. Before I did, I saved all the files that were to my wallet, including wallet_file.
Is it possible to restore my wallet? I want to note that I have stupidly not written down my seed phrase, but i remember the login-password to the wallet.

One thought I had was to install electrum again on my computer, and replace all files, including wallet_file from my previous wallet.
But When I do this, it seems that the file itself is corrupted.

I have read on different forums and some writes that you can open wallet_file with wordpad and be able to find his "seed-phrase" somewhere in the codes. But I can not even do this, it will only be a lot of 000,000,000 when I try this.

I have 1,5 Btc in my wallet, and today its alot of money, not for 5 years ago. Can someone help? Ill give the person that helps me to restore my wallet, 30% of the money.

[Mi5h0]

I have read on different forums and some writes that you can open wallet_file with wordpad and be able to find his "seed-phrase" somewhere in the codes. But I can not even do this, it will only be a lot of 000,000,000 when I try this.

First of all, the more you're messing with that file - less likely to recover it.
Find an IT specialist in your area. Someone you can trust.

There is no way to open a wallet_file in notepad if it is locked (encrypted) with the password.

[AdolfinWolf]

So what exactly happens when you try to open your wallet file in Electrum with your password, does it just closes itself, or?

Are you able to make & open new electrum wallets on your computer just fine? Also, what version was your electrum when you created the wallet? Take a look at this topic where someone posted a guide for fixing a corrupt wallet ( or how to derive the seed from it).  I doubt it will work though! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=327119.0

(Make sure to backup your corrupted wallet file before trying, in case you mess something up)

[HCP]

My computer crashed and I had to reinstall all windows. Before I did, I saved all the files that were to my wallet, including wallet_file.
Is it possible to restore my wallet? I want to note that I have stupidly not written down my seed phrase, but i remember the login-password to the wallet.

One thought I had was to install electrum again on my computer, and replace all files, including wallet_file from my previous wallet.
But When I do this, it seems that the file itself is corrupted.

I suspect your problem might be that you're replacing ALL the files... There are other data files aside from the wallet file and if you try to use old versions of data files with new version of Electrum, it might be causing an issue.

You should try installing the latest version of Electrum (https://electrum.org/#download) and after it is installed and running you can simply using "File -> Open" from inside Electrum and locate your wallet_file.

NOTE: I highly recommend you make a COPY of the original wallet_file that you have backed up... and work on the COPY.

I have read on different forums and some writes that you can open wallet_file with wordpad and be able to find his "seed-phrase" somewhere in the codes. But I can not even do this, it will only be a lot of 000,000,000 when I try this.

That trick only works if you didn't have a password. If your wallet file was password protected, you will be unable to read the seed phrase... as it will be encrypted within the file.

[Near28]

Which version of Electrum was installed?
Full Wallet-Encryption comes with electrum 2.xx - and normal, an encrypted Electrum wallet is not full of "00000".

For about 5 years ago i used Electrum wallet (offline wallet) to keep my bitcoins safe.

Somehow... I suppose you never updated it 

[NeuroticFish]

What I would do:
1. Download from the official page (https://electrum.org/#download) the portable version of Electrum.
2. Copy that one exe into a new folder
3. Start, from that new folder, Electrum portable, make a new wallet, but make sure the file is not named wallet_file. Let's name it dummy_test_wallet.
4. Stop Electrum, go to that new folder\electrum_data\wallets and copy there your wallet_file (only one file)
5. Start Electrum. Yes, it will open the dummy_test_wallet, don't worry.
6. In Electrum go to File->Open and open your wallet_file

This should open a new instance of Electrum with your very old wallet.

Edit: make sure your computer is safe of viruses, keyloggers and other surprises, 1.5 BTC is quite some money.

[nc50lc]

What I would do:
1. Download from the official page (https://electrum.org/#download) the portable version of Electrum.
2. Copy that one exe into a new folder
3. Start, from that new folder, Electrum portable, make a new wallet, but make sure the file is not named wallet_file. Let's name it dummy_test_wallet.
4. Stop Electrum, go to that new folder\electrum_data\wallets and copy there your wallet_file (only one file)
5. Start Electrum. Yes, it will open the dummy_test_wallet, don't worry.
6. In Electrum go to File->Open and open your wallet_file

This should open a new instance of Electrum with your very old wallet.

Edit: make sure your computer is safe of viruses, keyloggers and other surprises, 1.5 BTC is quite some money.

He can't do that because the wallet file is corrupted.

Nice steps tutorial though.
Perhaps you can make an infographic from it for newbies who doesn't know how to restore/transfer electrum wallets from other devices.
Or can I use it if I have the time to make one?

[NeuroticFish]

He can't do that because the wallet file is corrupted.

Nice steps tutorial though.
Perhaps you can make an infographic from it for newbies who doesn't know how to restore/transfer electrum wallets from other devices.
Or can I use it if I have the time to make one?

Thanks, but I don't think that's something extraordinary. You can use it, no problem.
I thought that's no harm trying this too, since from what I understood he may have done some steps wrong (like overwriting all the files) and that could cause issues. And then we know for sure if the wallet was indeed corrupted.