Lost private key years ago...

[Donate_Me]

I send this user alot of info but no answer ... so maybe there is nothing and just want to show btcforum and his family or freinds a drama story.
but for other peoples who have this problem ... some useful info :

After you check for a wallet.dat and compare it with other wallet
for example Wallet 2010 and Wallet 2016
there is some strings in both of them.
Recovery softwares dont have a "Wallet.dat Extention" so you must dump the file from Hard Disk.

Wallet 2010 :
http://s9.picofile.com/file/8304664892/wallet_2010.png

Wallet 2016 :
http://s9.picofile.com/file/8304664926/wallet_2016.png

b1 string and many more can help you to find START + END of wallet... you can find this in your hard disk dump (HEX MODE)
so its better you done from END to Start.
strings like :
b1 (start )
fromaccount ( middle )
keymeta (end )

http://s8.picofile.com/file/8304678168/Hex_Strings.png

with this Analyse you can search and find the section of wallet.dat file.
and if you dump that section and save to "wallet.dat" you will have a copy of your wallet file.
its not a very hard job but its need alot of attention ... 1byte make your file corrupted.
so you need test alot ( trial and error the saved file for a GOOD copy )

my freind start coding something like it to search in a IMAGE of Hard Disk.i dont know when it finish.

Good Luck.

[1714930096]

1714930096

[1714930096]

1714930096

[Mike Mayor]

Eh dude.... That really sucks. This is why backup everything. I know you never knew though and many people say to backup nit they themselves negate it. Very easy mistake to make and very costly. If you had mined a block you will have at least 50ntc plus the ones you were given. That's over $220k . Not an amount you want to lose. I wish you good luck and I really hope you come right and get your Bitcoin back.

[linenoise]

One of my collegues had the thought that as I said it was on my dropbox at one stage that was sync'd to my old laptop (which is hopefully still in work storage!) we can look on there.

My dropbox account isn't live anymore

And yes, I'm pretty mortified as this the one
https://blockchain.info/address/1FXavuV1rjJicYau2md7pa22Q3P4HEcMLN

Around $2 worth in 2010.

Have you talked to dropbox to see if they happen to archive closed accounts? I'd talk to the data recovery experts. Some firms managed to pull data from drives from the twin towers after they fell. If they can handle that sort of damage an overwritten file may be easy for them to get back.