Help: recover privkey after exporting from Qt?

[cypherdoc]

you should consider using pywallet's recovery feature

i don't see a command for that.

[Raoul Duke]

Then I'm sorry, I can't help you
AFAIK pywallet is the only tool that allows you to delete an address but it would have deleted the entry in "names" too anyway
I really don't see what happened here

If you definitely can't find it again, you should consider using pywallet's recovery feature

remember that i used Armory's import key function which extracts the key out of Qt.  it appears that it does what it says it does and this is irreversible.

So, can't you get it out of the Armory wallet it was imported to?

[cypherdoc]

Then I'm sorry, I can't help you
AFAIK pywallet is the only tool that allows you to delete an address but it would have deleted the entry in "names" too anyway
I really don't see what happened here

If you definitely can't find it again, you should consider using pywallet's recovery feature

remember that i used Armory's import key function which extracts the key out of Qt.  it appears that it does what it says it does and this is irreversible.

So, can't you get it out of the Armory wallet it was imported to?

no, b/c it got deleted.   

[Raoul Duke]

Then I'm sorry, I can't help you
AFAIK pywallet is the only tool that allows you to delete an address but it would have deleted the entry in "names" too anyway
I really don't see what happened here

If you definitely can't find it again, you should consider using pywallet's recovery feature

remember that i used Armory's import key function which extracts the key out of Qt.  it appears that it does what it says it does and this is irreversible.

So, can't you get it out of the Armory wallet it was imported to?

no, b/c it got deleted.   

I'm afraid to ask about backups now

[cypherdoc]

Then I'm sorry, I can't help you
AFAIK pywallet is the only tool that allows you to delete an address but it would have deleted the entry in "names" too anyway
I really don't see what happened here

If you definitely can't find it again, you should consider using pywallet's recovery feature

remember that i used Armory's import key function which extracts the key out of Qt.  it appears that it does what it says it does and this is irreversible.

So, can't you get it out of the Armory wallet it was imported to?

no, b/c it got deleted.  

I'm afraid to ask about backups now

believe it or not i lost 3 USB keys in the last 2 months with backups to this key on them.  

[jackjack]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg2763547#msg2763547

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/xxx"

[cypherdoc]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg2763547#msg2763547

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/xxx"

does this look right before i run it?:

Code:

sudo python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/cypher/Desktop/wallet.dat"

edit:  do i need the passphrase?

[Kouye]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg2763547#msg2763547

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/xxx"

does this look right before i run it?:

Code:

sudo python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/cypher/Desktop/wallet.dat"

edit:  do i need the passphrase?

Err, no, wallet.dat is not an "outputdir"... You need an empty folder where, I guess, all the found wallet ghosts will be written.

[jackjack]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg2763547#msg2763547

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/xxx"

does this look right before i run it?:

Code:

sudo python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/cypher/Desktop/wallet.dat"

edit:  do i need the passphrase?

You need to change:
 - 500Go to the approximate size of your partition (better higher than lower)
 - /dev/sdax to the partition you want to look into (sudo fdisk -l might help)
 - As Kouye said recov_outputdir must be a directory, empty or not

Pywallet will ask for the passphrases

The recovered file will be named "recovered_wallet_{timestamp}.dat"

[cypherdoc]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg2763547#msg2763547

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/xxx"

does this look right before i run it?:

Code:

sudo python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/cypher/Desktop/wallet.dat"

edit:  do i need the passphrase?

Err, no, wallet.dat is not an "outputdir"... You need an empty folder where, I guess, all the found wallet ghosts will be written.

so this where "output" is a new empty folder?

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/cypher/Desktop/output

[Kouye]

so this where "output" is a new empty folder?

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/cypher/Desktop/output

If your partition is like 300->500Go large, and if you never stored a wallet outside of /dev/sdax, then I guess it's ok.
If you think you might have stored/copied your wallet elsewhere, you'll need to retry with [elsewhere] instead of /dev/sdax, once this fails.

[cypherdoc]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg2763547#msg2763547

Code:

python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/xxx"

does this look right before i run it?:

Code:

sudo python pywallet_2.1.0b2.py --recover --recov_size 500Go --recov_device "/dev/sdax" --recov_outputdir="/home/cypher/Desktop/wallet.dat"

edit:  do i need the passphrase?

You need to change:
 - 500Go to the approximate size of your partition (better higher than lower)
 - /dev/sdax to the partition you want to look into (sudo fdisk -l might help)
 - As Kouye said recov_outputdir must be a directory, empty or not

Pywallet will ask for the passphrases

The recovered file will be named "recovered_wallet_{timestamp}.dat"

this is what i have:

Code:

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      499711      248832   83  Linux
/dev/sda2          501758   250068991   124783617    5  Extended
/dev/sda5          501760   250068991   124783616   83  Linux

[cypherdoc]

i have to be careful b/c i'm doing this on my linux mining server which has it's own wallet.dat and was not the originating computer.

i've copied the wallet.dat in question to the Desktop and need to confine any operations to it.

[jackjack]

Ok maybe I was not clear enough

This feature will read all the bytes on the partition you provide (/dev/sdax) and then gather everything that looks like a key
It does not read your wallet to try to repair it

That's why you need to put the partition where your wallet was/is

[cypherdoc]

Ok maybe I was not clear enough

This feature will read all the bytes on the partition you provide (/dev/sdax) and then gather everything that looks like a key
It does not read your wallet to try to repair it

That's why you need to put the partition where your wallet was/is

well then i'm going to have to move it back to the Windows system where it originated.

[Kouye]

Ok maybe I was not clear enough

This feature will read all the bytes on the partition you provide (/dev/sdax) and then gather everything that looks like a key
It does not read your wallet to try to repair it

That's why you need to put the partition where your wallet was/is

Also, you need to replace the 'x' in "/dev/sdax" by 2 or 5, depending on which partition your wallet was stored/copied on. If not sure, try both.
Sorry JackJack, this was begining to look like a mandatory hint.

[cypherdoc]

i've got this feeling the recovery feature is not going to work unless those key remnants in a dev/sda get stored in a VM, which i doubt.

the macbook on which that VM and Windows resides had to be reformatted and a new mac OS had to be installed for other reasons.  the VM/Windows image was then restored that had originally generated the wallet.

i could be wrong.

[Kouye]

If your wallet was stored on a vhd or equivalent virtual hard drive file, then you probably need to run the pywallet command on a VM with this vhd mounted, yes.
I doubt it would be able to parse private keys from a virtual hard drive file - but I might be wrong.

So restore the vhd, run a vm with this vhd mounted, install pywallet, and try the command line, targeting the vhd partition.

[cypherdoc]

If your wallet was stored on a vhd or equivalent virtual hard drive file, then you probably need to run the pywallet command on a VM with this vhd mounted, yes.
I doubt it would be able to parse private keys from a virtual hard drive file - but I might be wrong.

So restore the vhd, run a vm with this vhd mounted, install pywallet, and try the command line, targeting the vhd partition.

is there such a thing as mounting a hard drive in Windows?

[Kouye]

is there such a thing as mounting a hard drive in Windows?

Yes, but if it's a virtual hard drive, you need a compatible VM. What soft were you hosting the VM with (vmware, hyper-v, virtual server, etc.) ?