Electrum lost seed (laptop crash)

[Chabole007]

Peace,
I created an Electrum wallet and transfered an amount of btc on it, then suddendly my laptop crashed and i lost my private seed. I only have my adress and the password, is their anyway to get back to this wallet, or to get back (transfer) the btc to an other wallet?
Hope for help.
PEACE.

[1715220194]

1715220194

[1715220194]

1715220194

[TryNinja]

Didn't Electrum create a wallet file for your wallet? If it didn't, you will need the seed to restore your wallet.

Why didn't you write it down or made a backup of it?

edit: oh. crashed as "stopped working" I assume.

[LoyceV]

my laptop crashed

If all your data is on your laptop, you need to find back your data. What do you mean with "crashed"? People often say this when they mean Windows doesn't start anymore. As long as hdd/ssd is still working, your data should still be recoverable.
That means you shouldn't use the laptop anymore, take out the drive, and check it from another computer. It's probably wise to get some (local) help from someone who knows how to do this.
Even if your drive isn't working anymore, it might be able to recover your files, but that makes it much more expensive (and specialized) to do.

[mocacinno]

I agree with the previous posters, but i did want to give a "formal" answer to your question:

No, if you only have the funded address and a password used to encrypt your wallet, there is no way to recover your wallet.

You need one of these:

• The seed phrase that was shown to you when you created the wallet (it should have been indicated quite clearly that you really NEEDED to save the seedphrase... IIRC, you even have to prove you wrote down the seed before you can continue the wallet creation wizard)
• The wallet file AND the encryption password (if you don't remember the password, but you chose a weak one, or you have a decent idear what the password might have looked like, there are ways to brute-force it IF you have the wallet file)
• A list of all the private keys whose public key hashes (addresses) were funded (but i guess it's a longshot, since you didn't seem to have saved your seed phrase, i doubt you have used the function to export private keys.... BTW: it's not a good idear to export private keys to begin with, just save the seed phrase next time)

Like LoyceV already said: stop using the disk, unplug it, put it in a different machine as secondary disk (don't boot from it), then use a tool like dd to clone the disk containing your wallet file... Then copy the disk image, and only after you have 2 copies of the image from the disk that was in the "crashed" pc, you can proceed with tools like recuva and try to restore the wallet file.

[bob123]

What do you mean with 'crash' ?

If your laptop crashed, but is bootable -> Everything should be fine. Just start electrum and choose the wallet file (and make a backup of your seed (non-digital, e.g. piece of paper)).

If your laptop is NOT bootable anymore -> Do what LoyceV said. STOP USING THE DISK IMMEDIATELY.
Get a live linux distro on a bootable USB and try to recover the lost data (-> Backup your seed!). Preferably first create an image of the disk and try your recovery on the image.
This way you will still have your original drive ready for another image if you somehow corrupted the first image with your tools.


You need either the wallet file and your password OR the seed to restore the private keys holding your coins.


By the way.. how did you manage to create an electrum wallet WITHOUT backing up the seed ?
AFAIK electrum wants you to confirm you have backed up the seed. Why didn't you do that ? This is the most crucial thing to do. The seed IS your money.

[Chabole007]

The problem is that the seed file is deleted bcz of my laptop software ( not windows ) deletes every single data after restart

So do i understand it right without the seed my wallet is fucked up? No way to send the btc on any possible way back?

[LoyceV]

The problem is that the seed file is deleted bcz of my laptop software ( not windows ) deletes every single data after restart

What software did you use? If it doesn't save anything to disk (for instance a live CD/DVD), and you didn't write down your seed, you won't get your Bitcoins back. It helps if you give as much information as possible.

[bob123]

The problem is that the seed file is deleted bcz of my laptop software ( not windows ) deletes every single data after restart

There are no seed files.
There are wallet files and seed's. Those seeds are mostly encoded as 12-/24- word seeds.

Am i right assuming that you NEVER wrote these word seed down ?


Also, i heavily doubt your 'laptop software' is deleting everything on shutdown. I am not aware of any firmware doing this actually.
Are you using a live linux distro ? Because thats something completely different and definitely not 'laptop software'.

You might start off with explaining WHAT programs you EXACTLY use. Usually, you are able to recover deleted files, but only if you immediately stop using that hard drive.

So do i understand it right without the seed my wallet is fucked up? No way to send the btc on any possible way back?

Yes, without the seed (or the private keys which are derived from the seed) there is no way to access your coins.

[Chabole007]

I am using tails and when i start electrum om it tjey say they delete everything after a restart of the laptop and bcz it just shut down, all the electrum files --》 deleted

So i guess with this what i write im fiucked up wright?

[mocacinno]

I am using tails and when i start electrum om it tjey say they delete everything after a restart of the laptop and bcz it just shut down, all the electrum files --》 deleted

So i guess with this what i write im fiucked up wright?

most probably, yes...
Unless you used the persistence feature, or saved the wallet on a different medium, the wallet is gone. In other words: if you didn't take explicit action in order to save the wallet file persistently, it is gone... This feature is clearly documented in tail's documentation.

leave no trace on the computer you are using unless you ask it explicitly;

Source: https://tails.boum.org/

It has nothing to do with the hardware, you just chose to use a live OS that is configured not to leave a single trace.
You never explicitly said you didn't write down the seed, but i'm pretty sure that not answering this question is an answer on itself...


I hope you didn't fund the address generated by your wallet with to much... If it's just a couple bucks, you should probably consider it a tuition fee... Next time, make sure you understand the technology you're using, and read the messages that are printed on your screen... When you were generating a wallet, the seed must have been clearly shown to you, and in the next step of the wallet generation, you must have been asked to repeat the seed phrase that was shown to you... IIRC, the messages shown in this step clearly tell you you HAVE to save the seed on a piece of paper.
Electrum even goes as far as clearing the clipboard between the two steps, so you can't just copy the seed in the first step and paste it in the second step... There's a reason for this.

Sorry for your loss...