How recover bitcoin wallet from hard drive (2009)?

[maxxdxx]

Formatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the data in the address tables. But you did format few times. So I don't think it is doable. But give a try using each and every recovery software. If you have luck on your side, the result will be positive

[1713853968]

1713853968

[1713853968]

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[jackg]

Formatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the data in the address tables. But you did format few times. So I don't think it is doable. But give a try using each and every recovery software. If you have luck on your side, the result will be positive

You are correct, if you format a disk completely then it does just delete the "table of entries/indexes" to the document.
However, as OP suggests, data was saved afterwareds to the dirv (otherwise there woud be no oint in formatting it) meaning that recovery software would be useless if OP's drive was filled and overwrote the wallet.dat file initially.

There is a possibility with a software that can do low level recovery and passes multiple times to recover all old data.

If that one still not exists, then time now to create such software.

Bitcoin community may join together and host a bounty to creators. Nothing is impossible.


I feel sorry for your issues OP.

That is true that data can be recovered past a point of the last format.
I ran a recovery operation on a USB flash drive when it became corrupted and noticed that there was data found from the previous five formats.

[achow101]

Recovering your private keys will be nearly impossible and any attempt at data recovery will likely fail to recover the necessary files. While you can try data recovery, I highly doubt that there will be enough of the wallet.dat file remaining for you to recover any of your Bitcoin. Given that the drive has been formatted multiple times and subsequently used after each format (especially if it were used to being nearly full), I think that any important data that you had on that drive at any point in time would have already been overwritten and thus destroyed.


I just did some cleaning out of this thread. If your post was deleted, it is because it was either off topic, not constructive, or repeating what has already been said by others.

[cr1776]

Now i have only hard drive formatted 5-6 times.

I already tried using the data recovery software, recommended me to go to a data recovery expert?

One thing I didn't see you answer was whether after you formatted it 5-6 times, did you use the drive in between?

e.g. did you format, format, format, format, format and then nothing?
or
did you format, use for a year, format, use for a year, format, use for a year etc?

If it is the former, then it is much more likely you could have a chance to recover as compared to the latter.

In fact, if it is the former, you'd likely have a reasonable chance to recover and it would be worth spending the money to hire a recovery service to do so.  If it is the latter, it (as others have said) will be almost impossible to recover after years of usage.

[adaseb]

I have no idea how Bitcoin Core V0.0.1 (or whatever was out at the time) works but can't he just set his date back on his motherboard to approx when he first installed the software (sometime in 2009) using the EXACT same hard drive, same CPU, same motherboard and he would generate the exact same random key as before? Doesn't the software generate the data using info from the hard drive, cpu, motherbord, and time ?

He would have to do this for every second of every day within that 3-6 months time span when he approx installed the client to get the same key.

Probably would take 30 years or so but for millions of dollars it might be worth it.

[shield132]

Now i have only hard drive formatted 5-6 times.

I already tried using the data recovery software, recommended me to go to a data recovery expert?

To simplify this situation: If you have formatted your hard drive that number of times and it's been overwritten, then there is nothing that can be done.

Maybe even more than 1000 btc, were very many.

Unfortunately for you, these Bitcoin are most likely forever lost (unless you find that CD and it is intact).

Lauda why isn't it possible to recover? For example I'll take situation of black box ( Flight Recorder ) in airplane. If airplane went wrong and exploded, professionals in recovery tasks can to recover that written information even if hard drive is very damaged. I think it's also possible for him but it will cost much money, of course recuva and other softs can't help people but if he will find great professional, who knows, maybe he will recover.

[adaseb]

Now i have only hard drive formatted 5-6 times.

I already tried using the data recovery software, recommended me to go to a data recovery expert?

To simplify this situation: If you have formatted your hard drive that number of times and it's been overwritten, then there is nothing that can be done.

Maybe even more than 1000 btc, were very many.

Unfortunately for you, these Bitcoin are most likely forever lost (unless you find that CD and it is intact).

Lauda why isn't it possible to recover? For example I'll take situation of black box ( Flight Recorder ) in airplane. If airplane went wrong and exploded, professionals in recovery tasks can to recover that written information even if hard drive is very damaged. I think it's also possible for him but it will cost much money, of course recuva and other softs can't help people but if he will find great professional, who knows, maybe he will recover.

A black box is meant to suffer huge damage and still can retain its recordings. A hard drive doesn't work like that.

Generally when you over write the data once or twice, its very difficult to recreate anything left behind.

However if this was a huge hard drive like 2 TB and he only used the first 100-200MBs of the drive, then there is a good chance it might be recoverable since it wasn't over written.

[eXpl0sive]

I was 17 and I was not an expert, I had made a backup on cd in 2009, but even that is gone. I can't find this cd.

Rather than spending efforts on getting data back from the hard drive (which is formatted 4-5 times), your best bet would be to spend few days looking for this CD instead. If you find this CD, there is a lot more chance for the wallet to be there than your hard drive.

Indeed it would be a pain in the ass to hunt down this CD but if you find it, it would be really really worth it. Don't you think?


EDIT: A little off-topic but you said Saoshi himself sent these coins to you via a mailing list. Was this really true for Satoshi to just send thousands of BTC to random people on mailing list? Were there other people like you?

[shield132]

Now i have only hard drive formatted 5-6 times.

I already tried using the data recovery software, recommended me to go to a data recovery expert?

To simplify this situation: If you have formatted your hard drive that number of times and it's been overwritten, then there is nothing that can be done.

Maybe even more than 1000 btc, were very many.

Unfortunately for you, these Bitcoin are most likely forever lost (unless you find that CD and it is intact).

Lauda why isn't it possible to recover? For example I'll take situation of black box ( Flight Recorder ) in airplane. If airplane went wrong and exploded, professionals in recovery tasks can to recover that written information even if hard drive is very damaged. I think it's also possible for him but it will cost much money, of course recuva and other softs can't help people but if he will find great professional, who knows, maybe he will recover.

A black box is meant to suffer huge damage and still can retain its recordings. A hard drive doesn't work like that.

Generally when you over write the data once or twice, its very difficult to recreate anything left behind.

However if this was a huge hard drive like 2 TB and he only used the first 100-200MBs of the drive, then there is a good chance it might be recoverable since it wasn't over written.

Oh man, believe me it's not so bad situation, it's still possible to recover hard drive, yes black box is mieant to suffer huge damage but when it's broken, professionals still can to repair it, it needs some days man, it isn't happening in hours.

I suggest myBitcoin2009 to talk them: krollontrack.com or drivesaversdatarecovery.com but they worth thousand dollars but for 1000btc it worths. If I helped you and you'll recover your hard drive, it won't be bad if you'll give me 1 btc as a gift

[btcdevil]

Now i have only hard drive formatted 5-6 times.

I already tried using the data recovery software, recommended me to go to a data recovery expert?

To simplify this situation: If you have formatted your hard drive that number of times and it's been overwritten, then there is nothing that can be done.

Maybe even more than 1000 btc, were very many.

Unfortunately for you, these Bitcoin are most likely forever lost (unless you find that CD and it is intact).

Lauda why isn't it possible to recover? For example I'll take situation of black box ( Flight Recorder ) in airplane. If airplane went wrong and exploded, professionals in recovery tasks can to recover that written information even if hard drive is very damaged. I think it's also possible for him but it will cost much money, of course recuva and other softs can't help people but if he will find great professional, who knows, maybe he will recover.

A black box is meant to suffer huge damage and still can retain its recordings. A hard drive doesn't work like that.

Generally when you over write the data once or twice, its very difficult to recreate anything left behind.

However if this was a huge hard drive like 2 TB and he only used the first 100-200MBs of the drive, then there is a good chance it might be recoverable since it wasn't over written.

Oh man, believe me it's not so bad situation, it's still possible to recover hard drive, yes black box is mieant to suffer huge damage but when it's broken, professionals still can to repair it, it needs some days man, it isn't happening in hours.

I suggest myBitcoin2009 to talk them: krollontrack.com or drivesaversdatarecovery.com but they worth thousand dollars but for 1000btc it worths. If I helped you and you'll recover your hard drive, it won't be bad if you'll give me 1 btc as a gift

I am in the field of Data Recovery from Hard Disk and i can confirm that it is not at all possible to recover the data from the Hard disk which is formatted more then 5 or 6 times, even when it is formated more then 2 times then their are no chances. If once also the partition are deleted and rebuild then it is not possible.

You have to forget it your bitcoins as it is not possible.

[Moritz30]

There is a very small chance. First you should REMOVE THE HARD DROVE FROM YOUR COMPUTER INSTANTLY! Every second more write operations take place the chance of recovering lowers. Then you should contact a top notch data recovering agency. Don't fear to take a top notch enterprise one costing thousands of dollars. Only those have a chance of recovering something like that at all. However don't put too much hope in it. The chance is that low (around 0.001% max.) so it's virtually impossible but in case you really had that many Bitcoins it should ne worth trying.

[lazypolarbears]

... any updates OP? Just been curious as s/he seems to have gone silent...

[Moritz30]

Formatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the data in the address tables. But you did format few times. So I don't think it is doable. But give a try using each and every recovery software. If you have luck on your side, the result will be positive

This is a thing OP should try under no circumstances. Running an OS is enough to permanently destroy the data. He should not run anything with that hard drive anymore at all.

[lazypolarbears]

OP may want to 100% clone it just in case, and then send the clone off for a professional - doesn't matter if you have to may $x,xxx to get the 1000BTC out of there. Keep the original.

Make sure the professional works on contingency (not hourly rate... or else you might pay a lot and end up with no BTC) and is the best of the best IT experts.

[Moritz30]

OP may want to 100% clone it just in case, and then send the clone off for a professional - doesn't matter if you have to may $x,xxx to get the 1000BTC out of there. Keep the original.

Make sure the professional works on contingency (not hourly rate... or else you might pay a lot and end up with no BTC) and is the best of the best IT experts.

He has to send the original. The disk will not contain anything about the keys anymore but there might be magnetic rests that experts can recover

[achow101]

I have no idea how Bitcoin Core V0.0.1 (or whatever was out at the time) works but can't he just set his date back on his motherboard to approx when he first installed the software (sometime in 2009) using the EXACT same hard drive, same CPU, same motherboard and he would generate the exact same random key as before? Doesn't the software generate the data using info from the hard drive, cpu, motherbord, and time ?

He would have to do this for every second of every day within that 3-6 months time span when he approx installed the client to get the same key.

That's not how it works. RNGs pull in data from everywhere in order to get their random numbers. It is probably impossible to attempt to get exactly the same inputs that seed the RNG. This means that he has to have the exact some programs open, in the exact same places in their execution, the exact time down to the nanosecond, exactly the same mouse movements, exactly the same keyboard inputs, exact same bits set on the disk (which was formatted), etc. Because RNGs are usually seeded with this extremely precise data, it is impossible for OP to attempt to replicate the same state to get the RNG to generate the proper keys.


Given that OP has not responded in several days and that people are repeating what has already been said and generally being off topic and not constructive, I will be locking this thread. OP, if you want to continue the discussion and help going on here, please send me a PM and I can unlock it.