How to get bitcoins from broken hard drive?

[Scientest]

I had 101 bitcoins on my old hard drive and it broke. It was really hot when i felt it before it stopped working.

Can I retrieve the data (wallet.dat file) from it? In another word, can i transfer the wallet?

[Stylus]

Just so we're perfectly clear on this:

You had over $14,100 USD worth of bitcoin in your wallet and didn't back it up?

You felt the drive overheat and you STILL didn't back it up?

[DannyHamilton]

I had 101 bitcoins on my old hard drive and it broke. It was really hot when i felt it before it stopped working.

Can I retrieve the data (wallet.dat file) from it? In another word, can i transfer the wallet?

It's a shame you didn't make any backups.  The data on the drive might still be accessible, but I wouldn't have high hopes.

[gec]

For recovering something like $14k, your best bet is a professional company that does these kinds of things.
If you are in Europe, a colleague of mine had a rather good forensics experience with http://www.attingo.com/en.
This will easily cost you $500-$1000.

Good luck!

[Scientest]

That was when bitcoins were still $3-5 and i was still newb and didn't know it could be sent to be kept online. deepbit by default i think was set to automatically transfer every 1 btc so then i set it to 100 and forgot about it until it happened then *facepalm*

[threeip]

What make and model of hard drive is it?

[Mangalica]

Yes, it is possible to restore it if you can get to the file.
However the question whether You can do it is hard to answer. Misguided retrieval efforts can, in the worst case, cause further data loss.

If I had ~14k riding on a broken HDD I'd be very, very careful with homemade solutions. As gec pointed out, your best bet is to seek professional help, even if it costs you. That's certainly what I would do in your situation.

[Scientest]

maxtor diamondmax Plus 9 80gb, i was thinking of buying one from ebay to replace the pcb with

thanks for the tips

[dflatline]

maxtor diamondmax Plus 9 80gb, i was thinking of buying one from ebay to replace the pcb with

thanks for the tips

Thats your best bet, replacing the PCB should be cheap and easy.

[seedmybox]

Always make backup on private network or service!

[eadmanday]

IK have 3 backups... all private and hidden.

[Scientest]

how does back up work? if i withdrew from 1 of them, would all of them show the change? is it safe to just keep on online exchanges like mtgox and bitstamp? if no, how would i back those up?

[Scientest]

Yes, it is possible to restore it if you can get to the file.
However the question whether You can do it is hard to answer. Misguided retrieval efforts can, in the worst case, cause further data loss.

If I had ~14k riding on a broken HDD I'd be very, very careful with homemade solutions. As gec pointed out, your best bet is to seek professional help, even if it costs you. That's certainly what I would do in your situation.

by very careful, is replacing the pcb safe?

[whiskers75]

how does back up work? if i withdrew from 1 of them, would all of them show the change? is it safe to just keep on online exchanges like mtgox and bitstamp? if no, how would i back those up?

Yes, if you store your wallet.dat in multiple places, when you spend the coins on one, the others' balance changes as well.

Yes, it is possible to restore it if you can get to the file.
However the question whether You can do it is hard to answer. Misguided retrieval efforts can, in the worst case, cause further data loss.

If I had ~14k riding on a broken HDD I'd be very, very careful with homemade solutions. As gec pointed out, your best bet is to seek professional help, even if it costs you. That's certainly what I would do in your situation.

by very careful, is replacing the pcb safe?

If you're worried, seek professional help.

[Aahzman]

...given that it's a 10+ yr old drive, I would take it to a professional data recovery service

[dflatline]

Yes, it is possible to restore it if you can get to the file.
However the question whether You can do it is hard to answer. Misguided retrieval efforts can, in the worst case, cause further data loss.

If I had ~14k riding on a broken HDD I'd be very, very careful with homemade solutions. As gec pointed out, your best bet is to seek professional help, even if it costs you. That's certainly what I would do in your situation.

by very careful, is replacing the pcb safe?

Yes. All his data is on the platters themselves, which he won't be touching. PCB is on the outside, screwed to the bottom.

[threeip]

Yes do it, keep it all neat and plugged back in and don't mess up. Ie opening the plattery barn.

[Scientest]

...given that it's a 10+ yr old drive, I would take it to a professional data recovery service

yea it is around 10 years old, i don't know why a 10+ years old used 80gb hard drive still sells for $10+ on ebay...

[Scientest]

Yes, it is possible to restore it if you can get to the file.
However the question whether You can do it is hard to answer. Misguided retrieval efforts can, in the worst case, cause further data loss.

If I had ~14k riding on a broken HDD I'd be very, very careful with homemade solutions. As gec pointed out, your best bet is to seek professional help, even if it costs you. That's certainly what I would do in your situation.

by very careful, is replacing the pcb safe?

Yes. All his data is on the platters themselves, which he won't be touching. PCB is on the outside, screwed to the bottom.

thought so

[optikalsaint]

This reminds me of a scare I had a few years ago when I first started collecting bitcoins. I had a few hundred coins in a wallet and one day thought "Hm, I have nothing to do today. I will be a responsible computer user and back up my data" and put my wallet on a USB key and put it in a safety deposit box.

Not even 12hrs later the hard drive dies and I'm sitting there mouth agape like a woman in a Lifetime channel movie where she sees a kid almost get hit by a car but he doesn't and shes like "OMG MY BABY!" Always back up your data!