Lost Bitcoin

[Reupp]

Please excuse me if this sounds really stupid but few years back my father bought 12 bitcoins the price I believe was around £12 each . The wallet was on a brand new packard bell PC. At the time we wasn't to bothered about them and only got them as a guy we worked with was really pushing the idea of investing in Bitcoin .
A tech guy we employed dealt with setting it all up on one PC.

Since then the PC has been wiped . and reformatted after that . and also changed from windows 7 to 10. And is no history of the wallet in anyway. But we still have the PC.

So question is can the Bitcoins ever be recovered and accessed in anyway? In the intervening years no attempt has been made as I thought the answer is no. But soon that PC is going so wanted to do a final check.

Just to add this 2011 and was through mt gox. And if they are now truly lost what happens to them they just sit dormant ?
Apologies for very limited knowledge on the subject at the time it wasnt worth lots  so not much care or research was took on the matter .

[Confucio]

If you haven't write again on the disk after being reformatted  there might be a chance, don't do nothing more to the disk.  Even if part of it was re written it still might have a really slim chance.

http://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-files-after-format.htm


Wait a second ,  your father had the bitcoins in the local bitcoin Wallet or he had them at the exchange ?  

[BlockEye]

If you haven't write again on the disk after being reformatted  there might be a chance, don't do nothing more to the disk.  Even if part of it was re written it still might have a really slim chance.

http://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-files-after-format.htm


Wait a second ,  your father had the bitcoins in the local bitcoin Wallet or he had them at the exchange ?  

I want to clarify this either. But by judging on OP statement, i think they use a bitcoin wallet installed on PC and in that case. It will be wiped out and can't be recover because the hard disk is reformatted by new OS so that means you clear anything on hard disk. Just ask your father on what wallet did he use ot if he can remember the private key for his wallet. That is the only to recover it because it is a very long time it occur

[NeuroticFish]

So question is can the Bitcoins ever be recovered and accessed in anyway?

I really hope you meant files deleted and not "wiped" (overwritten with random data and then deleted). Because if it was wiped well, nothing can be recovered; unless you had a backup on USB/paper wallet, it's game over.

But I think that it was just plain delete, maybe re-partitioning.
If the wallet was local, there is a tiny chance it can be accessed, but a program has to read sector by sector to try to find something useful (the private key/keys to that money).
The only chance to recover anything is if that tiny part of your HDD was not overwritten by another file, so I would not hope too much.
As others said: maybe a private key (or the wallet!!) was saved somewhere else as backup (USB stick?), better ask your father.. Also that could be another choice to find/recover private keys.

[Reupp]

Yes was a local wallet programme not even sure which one that's one thing I'm trying to work out. I know the password to the wallet i think but no idea of key.
By wiped when a business changed over it was sent with other PCs to a tech guy and all were wiped it was like a full factory reset so yes I think it was more than just a delete.
I wasnt working with my Father at the time when they were wiped and is only latly I realised that old Packard Bell had a fair bit of value to it. Going to ask him to scour any email accounts and any old USBs for any trace but its unlikely.  Any recovery programme I tried showed nothing to do with Bitcoins.
Is frustrating and not good that didn't backup or even just write the key by hand down somewhere.

I'll update if I get anywhere but as said it does look like completly lost Bitcoins  I thought I'd better get good opinion before the PC goes. Thankyou for replys

[Confucio]

Yes was a local wallet programme not even sure which one that's one thing I'm trying to work out. I know the password to the wallet i think but no idea of key.
By wiped when a business changed over it was sent with other PCs to a tech guy and all were wiped it was like a full factory reset so yes I think it was more than just a delete.
I wasnt working with my Father at the time when they were wiped and is only latly I realised that old Packard Bell had a fair bit of value to it. Going to ask him to scour any email accounts and any old USBs for any trace but its unlikely.  Any recovery programme I tried showed nothing to do with Bitcoins.
Is frustrating and not good that didn't backup or even just write the key by hand down somewhere.

I'll update if I get anywhere but as said it does look like completly lost Bitcoins  I thought I'd better get good opinion before the PC goes. Thankyou for replys

i had the same happening to me, so i understand where your coming from.

Oh well

[Coin-Keeper]

Yikes, 12 BTC is over half way to the coveted 21 club!  Sorry man!

[BuyWithBitcoin.info]

You deleted your 12K by reformatting the hard drive, now let's have a party.
Only way to recover them if you used third party wallet.

[Dmitry.Vastov]

Maybe theres a chance to recovered your lost bitcoins but the chance is very small.
Its very hard to recover your loss because that could possibly wiped out or deleted. Even an expert will never guarantee you will recover it.
Sad to say. You have to move on now mate. Atleast you've learned a lesson from that mistake.

[Blackdeath]

Please excuse me if this sounds really stupid but few years back my father bought 12 bitcoins the price I believe was around £12 each . The wallet was on a brand new packard bell PC. At the time we wasn't to bothered about them and only got them as a guy we worked with was really pushing the idea of investing in Bitcoin .
A tech guy we employed dealt with setting it all up on one PC.

Since then the PC has been wiped . and reformatted after that . and also changed from windows 7 to 10. And is no history of the wallet in anyway. But we still have the PC.

So question is can the Bitcoins ever be recovered and accessed in anyway? In the intervening years no attempt has been made as I thought the answer is no. But soon that PC is going so wanted to do a final check.

Just to add this 2011 and was through mt gox. And if they are now truly lost what happens to them they just sit dormant ?
Apologies for very limited knowledge on the subject at the time it wasnt worth lots  so not much care or research was took on the matter .

It is impossible to recover it since the you don't have a backup files. Even though you have its private key, it's impossible to open it since the file has been wiped out. Next time, use online wallets like blockchain, not paper wallet. Because once you lose your files in your pc and you don't have a backup, there is no hope in recovering that.

[AmoreJaz]

there is a very slight possibility of recovering them! but the hard disk needs to be scrutinized in depth! there are a few programs out there that do a in depth undelete or recovery of files from previous formats!

[DannyHamilton]

And if they are now truly lost what happens to them they just sit dormant?

Yes.

If a backup was never made of the wallet, and you are unable to recover the wallet data from the PC, then the bitcoins will just sit there un-spendable.

[Cereberus]

Only one way to recover and this is if you used Electrum,Multibit HD or HD wallets and if you wrote down the SEED with which you or your father through the SEED  can restore from any PC ,even from the newly formatted and newly installed OS.

Otherwise your coins are lost forever.

[Anillos2]

Please excuse me if this sounds really stupid but few years back my father bought 12 bitcoins the price I believe was around £12 each . The wallet was on a brand new packard bell PC. At the time we wasn't to bothered about them and only got them as a guy we worked with was really pushing the idea of investing in Bitcoin .
A tech guy we employed dealt with setting it all up on one PC.

Since then the PC has been wiped . and reformatted after that . and also changed from windows 7 to 10. And is no history of the wallet in anyway. But we still have the PC.

So question is can the Bitcoins ever be recovered and accessed in anyway? In the intervening years no attempt has been made as I thought the answer is no. But soon that PC is going so wanted to do a final check.

Just to add this 2011 and was through mt gox. And if they are now truly lost what happens to them they just sit dormant ?
Apologies for very limited knowledge on the subject at the time it wasnt worth lots  so not much care or research was took on the matter .

Do not use that hard drive, because each write operation could wipe the wallet if It was here. If you start that computer, the disk operating system could write that HDD. Try to read it with a different computer.

By wiped when a business changed over it was sent with other PCs to a tech guy and all were wiped it was like a full factory reset so yes I think it was more than just a delete.

A "real wipe" consists in writing random data in every byte of the hard disk, this is very slow and most of people don't use this method to remove the previous data.
You have chances to recover your money.

[achow101]

how to recover lost when bitcoin where someone took it out of my wallet account?

First of all, do not hijack someone else's thread. Please make your own separate thread.

Secondly, if your Bitcoin is stolen, you cannot recover it. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible.

[LegendsRoomLV]

Please excuse me if this sounds really stupid but few years back my father bought 12 bitcoins the price I believe was around £12 each . The wallet was on a brand new packard bell PC. At the time we wasn't to bothered about them and only got them as a guy we worked with was really pushing the idea of investing in Bitcoin .
A tech guy we employed dealt with setting it all up on one PC.

Since then the PC has been wiped . and reformatted after that . and also changed from windows 7 to 10. And is no history of the wallet in anyway. But we still have the PC.

So question is can the Bitcoins ever be recovered and accessed in anyway? In the intervening years no attempt has been made as I thought the answer is no. But soon that PC is going so wanted to do a final check.

Just to add this 2011 and was through mt gox. And if they are now truly lost what happens to them they just sit dormant ?
Apologies for very limited knowledge on the subject at the time it wasnt worth lots  so not much care or research was took on the matter .

This is a tragedy. I would still save the hard drive regardless. Wish you the best!!!

[Mike Mayor]

You should habe listened to thst guy. I never even knew about btc back then. You not the brightest dude. Firstly you don't listen to good investment advise and then you go format your pc and not just that but install a fresh copy of windows and this was done years ago and now you come here asking for help ? Why didn't you ask the guy you bought the bitcoins from to help you out ? Though I guess he couldn't care and is super rich. What do you think the answer to your question is ?

[Carlsen]

I don't see a chance that it will be possible to regain your wallet.
Even if you made just a fast formatting of your hard drive (a complete formatting writes zeros all over your hard disk, so there is nothing to recover under that circumstances), you installed a new windows on it and it's relatively sure that you put some data on your computer as well. That will have overwritten parts of your old wallet most ceratainly.
Of yourse you can try it with a program (the one I know is named recuva, it's for free), but I would not have any hopes if I were you.

[Velkro]

There is no way to recover it now. If you changed windows and not recovered till then wallet, its probably overwritten by some other data.
Too bad, but its not life-or-death money, so there is no tragedy in the end in big picture.

[beltsniffer]

Please excuse me if this sounds really stupid but few years back my father bought 12 bitcoins the price I believe was around £12 each . The wallet was on a brand new packard bell PC. At the time we wasn't to bothered about them and only got them as a guy we worked with was really pushing the idea of investing in Bitcoin .
A tech guy we employed dealt with setting it all up on one PC.

Since then the PC has been wiped . and reformatted after that . and also changed from windows 7 to 10. And is no history of the wallet in anyway. But we still have the PC.

So question is can the Bitcoins ever be recovered and accessed in anyway? In the intervening years no attempt has been made as I thought the answer is no. But soon that PC is going so wanted to do a final check.

Just to add this 2011 and was through mt gox. And if they are now truly lost what happens to them they just sit dormant ?
Apologies for very limited knowledge on the subject at the time it wasnt worth lots  so not much care or research was took on the matter .

There is a chance that your file is recoverable with a program like Virtual Lab. Unless the hard drive was actually erased/degaussed. Just a simple format and installation of a new windows version would not make it unrecoverable unless the sector just happened to be overwritten by new data. I have recovered years old data from hard drives that have had multiple windows installations.