Can't find my Bitcoins purchased in 2011 - please help

[djsenior]

I purchased some bitcoins in 2011 from Dialcoin - I have an email I sent to them asking where the coins I purchased went (very naive at the time) - I've since sold the PC (which was also mining) to a friend (back in 2012)

Is there any way I can find the coins ?

I cannot remember the wallet I was using + had a piece of paper which I think I threw away a the time.

Please help.

David.

[Mitchell]

So you don't know where the coins you purchased were sent to? You don't have a backup and the PC you used to use is gone?

Well, that means your coins are gone as well. There is no way to recover them without a backup.

[djsenior]

Correct.  I thought it may have been possible to somehow track them down.  oh well :-(

[nachius]

Correct.  I thought it may have been possible to somehow track them down.  oh well :-(

Do you remember who you sold the computer to?

[djsenior]

Hi all,

I just found this file on an old hard drive :-

bitcoin-0.4.0-win32-setup

I don't have a PC - do you think it may help ?

David.

[AdolfinWolf]

Hi all,

I just found this file on an old hard drive :-

bitcoin-0.4.0-win32-setup

I don't have a PC - do you think it may help ?

David.

If it's called a setup it is probably just the .exe of the bitcoin core install process at the time.

I don't think any specific wallet code is written down there / stored such as for example the wallet.dat...

Is there anything else other then the setup of the wallet on it?

[Parodium]

That file certainly wont be of any help. If you have the hard drive associated with the PC you could run a recovery tool and look for a wallet.dat file. However, if you stored the BTC in a paper wallet then your money is likely gone unless you wrote down the private keys elsewhere. I would say your best options are to contact dialcoin and see if they can provide you a backup of the wallet, and secondly to run a recovery tool on any associated media you used with the device (if you have any).

[djsenior]

Thanks all,

DialCoin don't seem to exist anymore - I cannot find where/how to contact them today....

I did have a print out of the codes but remember tossing it away as I didn't;t think it was going anywhere at the time.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I'll keep searching for the Wallet.Dat file - I found two old HD's one with a PC (I'm now on MAC) backup from 2011- bit its date was April and I was mining/buying in Nov... sheesh...

ANY tips appreciated.

David.

[Kathan]

Im feeling you..
I got almost one whole coin back in 2012 and i didnt really understand this wallet mechanics..the old PC where they were at is long gone and with it the keys =/
Well..i guess thats happened a lot back in the days and there are many BTC lost forever..forgotten by their unlucky owners.

[Mountaingoat]

If your friend still has the PC you can ask him if you check the PC for the wallet.dat file and give him a % of the Bitcoin if he wants.

This explains where the wallet.dat file is located based on different OS's:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

[teddy5145]

Chance of you recovering this coins is almost zero.

The coins were bought in 2011, tracking those coins via Blockchain would be impossible with thousands transactions appearing everyday.
Dialcoin does not exists anymore, it only lasted a year before closing.
Using Internet Archive I've managed to get their emails and names, but I doubt it's active anymore
https://web.archive.org/web/20120307115400/http://www.dialcoin.com:80/support

Chances of your friend still have your data is slim too, He could've bought a new HDD or format it after he bought it from you.
This story isn't new at all, there are many early adopters who forgot about their coins and threw it away

How many Bitcoins did you bought at that time anyway?

[djsenior]

Hi all,

I cannot remember how many I bought - but my friend still has the PC and HDD I sold him - he's going to bring it round to me so we can try and search it for the wallet/dat file - worth a try.

Also, I was mining Bitcoins - it was around November 2011 - but again, I can't remember what I used to mine them, does anyone know what would have been used in Nov 2011 ? is it a system I can log back into ?

ps. Thanks Mountaingoat for https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory will try it when I get the PC back (in a week or two).

David.

[Parodium]

Hi all,

I cannot remember how many I bought - but my friend still has the PC and HDD I sold him - he's going to bring it round to me so we can try and search it for the wallet/dat file - worth a try.

Also, I was mining Bitcoins - it was around November 2011 - but again, I can't remember what I used to mine them, does anyone know what would have been used in Nov 2011 ? is it a system I can log back into ?

ps. Thanks Mountaingoat for https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory will try it when I get the PC back (in a week or two).

David.

It was mostly CPU mining back in those days, so unless you're mistaken about the date, I doubt you used an ASIC miner.

[CntryBoy]

Yes, retrieving that computer back from the friend and locating the files on it would be the starting point.  Then accessing the files would be next.  I'm not sure if there were private kets back then?  I didn't get into crypto until about 2014, so not sure about the wallet setups back then.  Best of luck retrieving them, especially if you mined and saved a few on that PC.

[gracezie]

Sad to say without the back up keys in your hands then just accept that your coins are now gone. Try ask your friend to whom you sold your PC if he still havent make reformats on disk of your pc maybe there something there like file or memo that could help you.