Question on wallet, could not find this case during search.

[Sabai]

Here's my scenario, would like some help please:

1) I had an old Bitcoin wallet/address # created from the original client, never used. 
2) Computer where wallet/address was created has been wiped for at least 1 year.
3) Due to stupidly holding onto the address of the deleted wallet, it was mistakenly sent some bitcoins.

   A)  Was the money sent to this 'non-existent' wallet and therefore gone forever?  or
   B)  (please please please)  Will the transaction not go through because the wallet was old, gone and never used?

Thanks for any answers you may provide.

[charliemaggot]

Unfortunately...(you know what's coming)....the coins will still be sent to it and unless you can find a backup of the old wallet, you won't be able to get them back.

Really there is no such things as a non-existent address, they all exist, it's just no one is using them yet.

Sorry.

[deepceleron]

Only an address’s owner can send a payment from an address, because only an owner’s wallet contains the secret private key.
...
If the wallet data stored on a computer is deleted, or the computer hard drive dies, then the owner loses the ability to send their bitcoins to anyone else – they are lost. This is why it is important to make a secure backup of the wallet before using Bitcoin for significant amounts.

The money is sent to that address. If you have no wallet containing that address, they will stay in the address forever.

[Sabai]

Worst case scenario verified, guess I will be spending some time going through my old hard drives tonight just in case

Thanks for the information.

[asciicat]

Worst case scenario verified, guess I will be spending some time going through my old hard drives tonight just in case

Thanks for the information.

Just curious... How much was it?

You can use Recuva to get back old files but the chances of recovering after a year long format are nil.

[Sabai]

Just curious... How much was it?

You can use Recuva to get back old files but the chances of recovering after a year long format are nil.

Thanks for the Recuva info, I had not thought to try that, once I get home from work I still have a few hard drives to check, due to the .dat file being in %appdata% I think I actually have a chance of finding it since I keep my OS on smaller drive and games on larger, and when upgrading put aside the smaller OS drive, make the old gaming drive the new OS drive and buy a new gaming drive. 

As for the amount, I would prefer not to advertise the extent of my stupidity, but perhaps if I find the wallet I'll tell you, then I wouldn't be nearly as inane, right?