wallet recovery, please need help

[alexbonaci]

HI, in 2 years Imported my brain wallet in electrum, I imported the private key of my brain wallet, but I generated one new address and receive bitcoins in one new address, I lost my computer and not made one backup of this new wallet with the new address generated only have my private key of my brain wallet, I imported again in electrum but not imported the new address before of lost my computer, I have any chance of recovery the private key of this address then was generated in wallet of I imported the my private key of my brain wallet? I have the address of new generated address then have my bitcoins and the address and private key of my brain wallet but not have the new private key of my new address then have the my bitcoins, thank you.

[TryNinja]

So, you created a HD wallet (with a seed), exported the private key from a specific address on your wallet and now lost the seed and only have the private key from that address. Am I right?

If that's right, you can't get the other addresses from your HD wallet just from one private key. You will need the seed. Without it, the coins in the other addresses are gone.

[mocacinno]

HI, in 2 years Imported my brain wallet in electrum, I imported the private key of my brain wallet, but I generated one new address and receive bitcoins in one new address, I lost my computer and not made one backup of this new wallet with the new address generated only have my private key of my brain wallet, I imported again in electrum but not imported the new address before of lost my computer, I have any chance of recovery the private key of this address then was generated in wallet of I imported the my private key of my brain wallet? I have the address of new generated address then have my bitcoins and the address and private key of my brain wallet but not have the new private key of my new address then have the my bitcoins, thank you.

Electrum has 2 kinds of wallets:
1) an HD wallet, this wallet basically uses an xprv (a master private key) to derive subkeys (private keys), the subkey can be used to derive a public key, and the hash of the public key is the address. An unlimited amount of subkeys can be generated, each time one of your addresses gets funded, a new private key/public key/address gets derived, each time you generate a new transaction, a new change address gets derived.
When you generate a new HD wallet, you are presented with a recovery seed. This is basically a phrase consisting of x words. If you restore your wallet, and enter the recovery seed, electrum can regenerate the old xprv, and derive all old private keys...

2) you can also generate a wallet by importing one or more private keys. Such a wallet cannot generate new addresses. If you import a private key from, for example, a brain wallet, the address generated by hashing the public key belonging to the private key you imported will be the only address that is ever monitored by your wallet.

In reality, only 2 things could have happened:
1) you generated a new HD wallet, and unwillingly swept your brain wallet. By sweeping the brain wallet, a new transaction was generated that spent all unspent outputs funding your brain wallet in order to fund an address belonging to your HD wallet

2) you generated a non-hd wallet, in which case the unspent outputs shouldn't have moved. If you remember all private keys you imported during the wallet creation, you should have access to your balance

So, in order to regain access to your funds, you need:
1) either the wallet seed phrase, if you generated a hd wallet and swept the brain wallet

2) or all private keys you imported during wallet generation... If you imported multiple private keys, it *is* possible you need all of them to regain access to your funds

3) you could try to find the old wallet file, it'll either have the xprv, or the private keys...

[alexbonaci]

when I generated one wallet in electrum I clicked: "import bitcoin addresses or private keys", input the private key of my brain wallet and generated my wallet with only my private key of my brain wallet, I need receive one payment and generated other address in my wallet and receive the bitcoins in this address, one or 2 days after I lost my computer, the bag with my computer are lost in one trip and never have acces to this computer again and not have one backup,the bitcoins are in this address up to today, I have the new address of my bitcoins is in and the private key and address of my brain wallet then I generated my new adrees,  I have any chance to recover this bitcoins? thank you.

[TryNinja]

when I generated one wallet in electrum I clicked: "import bitcoin addresses or private keys", input the private key of my brain wallet and generated my wallet with only my private key of my brain wallet, I need receive one payment and generated other address in my wallet and receive the bitcoins in this address, one or 2 days after I lost my computer, the bag with my computer are lost in one trip and never have acces to this computer again and not have one backup,the bitcoins are in this address up to today, I have the new address of my bitcoins is in and the private key and address of my brain wallet then I generated my new adrees,  I have any chance to recover this bitcoins? thank you.

Where did you generate your brain wallet? It should be a list of words that you import in Electrum and it generates your addresses (and private keys) from there, and not generating a private key somewhere else and importing it in Electrum.

[alexbonaci]

I generated in bitaddress dot org clicked in brain wallet and input my private key in electrum  then I clicked "import bitcoin address or private keys" and input my private key of my brain wallet after I generated one new address in this wallet of my private key but not have the new private key of this address.

[bob123]

How did you create your second address?
Was it also created via a brainwallet tool? Or was the second address created by electrum?

If you actually have generated the second address inside electrum and have no backup of your wallet file (or access to the Hard drive) coins on this address are most probably lost.
Such a scenario shows why it is not recommended to use brainwallets, to say nothing about the security itself.

[HCP]

I generated in bitaddress dot org clicked in brain wallet and input my private key in electrum  then I clicked "import bitcoin address or private keys" and input my private key of my brain wallet after I generated one new address in this wallet of my private key but not have the new private key of this address.

I didn't think this was actually possible with Electrum? Or did that behaviour change since 2 years ago?

Currently, if you create a wallet by using the "Import Bitcoin Addresses or Private Keys", it will create an "imported" keystore type wallet... and this wallet will NOT be able to create new private keys/addresses.

I think the earliest version I used was like v2.6.x... and I don't remember it allowing you to create new keys... Did older versions create new private keys for imported wallets?

[mocacinno]

I generated in bitaddress dot org clicked in brain wallet and input my private key in electrum  then I clicked "import bitcoin address or private keys" and input my private key of my brain wallet after I generated one new address in this wallet of my private key but not have the new private key of this address.

I didn't think this was actually possible with Electrum? Or did that behaviour change since 2 years ago?

Currently, if you create a wallet by using the "Import Bitcoin Addresses or Private Keys", it will create an "imported" keystore type wallet... and this wallet will NOT be able to create new private keys/addresses.

I think the earliest version I used was like v2.6.x... and I don't remember it allowing you to create new keys... Did older versions create new private keys for imported wallets?

nope, i also confirmed this in my first post. The oldest version i can remember using is v2.4.x, at least 2 years ago. AFAIK, electrum never mixes HD and non-HD wallets, unless it were versions pre-2.4 (in which case i wouldn't know).

Like i said in my first post: the OP either created a non-HD wallet, in which case he needs all private keys he initially imported, or he created a HD wallet and swept his brain wallet instead of importing it (in which case he needs the recovery seed).

A last option would be to search the initial wallet file, in which case it wouldn't matter if he created a HD or a non-HD wallet.

[Abdussamad]

Electrum did let you import private keys into an HD wallet. Later they realized that that was a recipe for disaster because users assumed all their private keys were backed up by the seed but the imported ones were not. So they removed that option to import private keys from the GUI when using HD wallets. You can still do it via the CLI though.

A non-HD wallet, such as one created using the import addresses or bitcoin private keys option, can't create new addresses unless you import more private keys into it.

OP needs to clarify how he created the new address.

[alexbonaci]

Hi, I'm trying remember and I think then Import the brain wallet in notebook after have created the address in my personal computer(it is in my house), after I imported the wallet in my notebook I import one other wallet or the same with one watch-only wallet, after I make one trip with notebook and lost, my computer have 3 hd's then 2 I have in my house, I find in my email and find then I formatted my computer in 07-17-2016 I fews programs to recover the wallet.dat(I created in bitcoin core) I find one wallet of 07-23-2016 after I formatted my computer with no passphrase but no is the address of I have my bitcoins, I find other wallets but no one then is possible date of my formatted hardware, I used r-studio, recuva, easeus, get data back and no one find one valid file between the probably date of I have my wallet when I formatted my computer, this 2 hd's I not find one file between this date , I contacted one person then have the third hd and ask to her send me the HD, thanks for the help and wait find this file in the third hd.