Wallet lost after windows installation? Used portable version.

[anonski]

Hi
I'm afraid I might have lost my earnings.
Had on my second ssd partition Electrum Portable Wallet 3.13
After I reinstalled Windows I wiped my primary partition.
Now, I've tried creating a new wallet using 2 seed phrases (12 words each) which I had saved, one might be from a different wallet, from before the time I've moved to Electrum.

Unfortunately after creating new wallet using each seed phrase I see that my balance is zero.
Any way to salvage this?

[starseeker]

Do not mess with your hard disk now or write anything to it now. Sometime it is still possible to recover formatted data from a disk. Waiting to see what others have to say on this.

[Marynarz]

I recommend it for data recovery https://sourceforge.net/projects/lparted/

[khaled0111]

one might be from a different wallet, from before the time I've moved to Electrum.

If one of the seeds was generated by another wallet, you will not be able to directly import it into Electrum unless you check the bip 39 box.

Unfortunately after creating new wallet using each seed phrase I see that my balance is zero.
Any way to salvage this?

After restoring the wallets and waiting few seconds (till it finishes syncing), do you see any old transactions under the history tab? If not then none of them is the wallet you are looking for.

[dre1982]

I recommend it for data recovery https://sourceforge.net/projects/lparted/

Lparted is great. It helped me a few times when I started with crypto. Now I do a lot of external backups.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

The seed phrase is the key to all the associated addresses having your bitcoins. Without the correct seed phrase, your chances of recovering your earnings are minimal. Try cross-checking and see if there is anywhere else you could have saved or stored your 12- word seed. There is a likelihood that you are try to recover the wallet using the wrong 12 word seed phrases.
Also try checking your address using a blockchain explorer to a certain if the Bitcoins are actually there.

[HCP]

Had on my second ssd partition Electrum Portable Wallet 3.13
After I reinstalled Windows I wiped my primary partition.

If you were using Electrum Portable .exe, then the wallet storage is created in the same location as the portable .exe... it isn't stored in the "AppData\Roaming\Electrum" folder...

So, I'm a little confused by your description of the issue... you had Electrum on a second partition, and you wiped the primary partition? If so, and your second partition is untouched, then your wallet should not have been affected at all.

Or were you using the Electrum standalone .exe?   The "standalone" .exe does use "AppData\Roaming\Electrum" folder for data and wallet storage.

[nc50lc]

Window's search feature will speed things up.
Open a windows explorer, go to the second partition drive's root or "This PC" and search for "electrum_data" (without quotation marks).
Wait for it to finish searching.

If there's a result, there should be a "wallets" folder in it and your wallet should be there.
If you're now using the installer or stand-alone, copy your wallet(s) to the default data directory in %appdata%/electrum/wallets

[BitMaxz]

The Electrum needs the internet to connect on servers so if you have a connection issue it won't sync and show the latest info of your wallet.

If you have an internet connection but it still doesn't sync maybe there is something from your internet blocking Electrum from syncing. Try to reboot the internet router and change your PC/Laptop DNS then test it again.

If not work can you check the status of your wallet(A circle under Electrum bottom right corner)
Check this post as reference https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5277300.msg55239271#msg55239271

You can also try it with a VPN but if none of these don't work your backup seeds are different wallets and take note if you still use the 3.13 version of Electrum all methods above will not work because you are using an older version with outdated servers and lower than 3.3.4 version have many phishing attack so be very careful always use latest version of Electrum and download it from a legit source(electrum.org).

[anonski]

Pheww
One of the codes worked!
So what s the best way of keeping a wallet? portable version?
have the code written on your computer and laptop? have it written on a paper too?

[Lucius]

Pheww
One of the codes worked!

You are probably referring to the links posted by the members above, these are not any codes. It is crucial that you do not use something that you do not fully understand, because it is only a matter of time before you find yourself in a hopeless situation.

So what s the best way of keeping a wallet? portable version?
have the code written on your computer and laptop? have it written on a paper too?

So you see that such a version only caused you problems - it means that you need to look for another option. If you install the desktop version and make a good enough copy of the seed then you will always be able to make a wallet recovery with backup. It is recommended that you do not save such a backup on your computer or anywhere online, and if you really want it for some reason then let such a file be encrypted. Paper that is protected in a plastic wrapper and stored in a safe is something that many practice - if you want something safer, there are various methods of cutting seeds on metal plates.

Also a warning that one seed does not represent any security, but also that 2 or more such backups in the same location is not a smart idea.

[khaled0111]

You are probably referring to the links posted by the members above,

No, I think OP is talking about one of the seeds he has. He didn't tell us why it didn't work in the first attempt, though!

So what s the best way of keeping a wallet? portable version?
have the code written on your computer and laptop? have it written on a paper too?

Saving your seeds digitally on a computer or online is the worst thing you can do. Just think of what could happen if your device gets compromised or when your hard drive crashes!
The best way to keep your seed safe is to write it it down on a piece of paper then hide it somewhere safe. The more backups you have, the safer your wallet is.
You can also think of buying a hardware wallet.

[nc50lc]

So what s the best way of keeping a wallet? portable version?

Any Electrum, whether Stand-alone, installer or Portable are built the same way as the others,
the difference is Portable has its own data directory which is the same directory where the executable is (already explained by HCP).

As the name suggest, Portable is for "portable-use-case" like keeping the executable, the data directory and wallets in a Flash drive to be able to use on multiple computers (which is risky).
The installer and stand-alone both save the data directory in your %appdata% folder,
Installer will install "loose files" to your program files (or your preference), while Stand-alone will work as it is but will launch a little bit slower.

Now that you know where it will save the wallet files(s), it up to your preference or use-case now.

When it comes with security, it all goes down to how you handle the seed phrase and how strong your wallet's password is.
For the seed, just follow the suggestion above; for the password, just use the textbook instructions on creating a strong password.

[HCP]

One of the codes worked!

Glad to hear that you managed to recover using one of your seed mnemonics.

So what s the best way of keeping a wallet? portable version?

Depends on your use-case... if you require portability, or desire to keep the wallets out of your %AppData% or C: drive location etc, then portable might be the answer, otherwise I would recommend the "installer", it's simple and "clean" and is less likely to cause issues later down the track.

have the code written on your computer and laptop?

NO!!!  Nein, nyet, NEGATIVE! DO NOT do this... EVER! If you have, you should create a new wallet with a completely new seed mnemonic (that is NOT stored digitally) and move all your coins. This forum is littered with posts from users who lost all their coins because they had taken screenshots of their seed mnemonic, or written it in a txt/word document on their PC or put it in an email/IM message etc. DO NOT store your seed mnemonic digitally. Keep it "offline".

have it written on a paper too?

DO do this! double check your work...

[bob123]

have the code written on your computer and laptop?

NO!!!  Nein, nyet, NEGATIVE! DO NOT do this... EVER! If you have, you should create a new wallet with a completely new seed mnemonic (that is NOT stored digitally) and move all your coins. This forum is littered with posts from users who lost all their coins because they had taken screenshots of their seed mnemonic, or written it in a txt/word document on their PC or put it in an email/IM message etc. DO NOT store your seed mnemonic digitally. Keep it "offline".

While this generally is the consensus, and definitely is recommendable,.. if his PC gets compromised, it doesn't matter whether there is the mnemonic code stored in a text file or not.
If there is a wallet installed, it is compromised. And the next time it is being opened, the adversary has access to the private keys / coins. Regardless of where the mnemonic code is stored.

When using a desktop wallet, you have to assume you can protect your device properly. Not storing the mnemonic code on it is recommendable, but it doesn't make it much more secure overall.
It is important to not get into the state of perceived security.