Recover Electrum 2.6.3 address from broken Windows

[Destroy666]

Hello,

how do I recover my address from Electrum 2.6.3 from broken Windows 7 installation? I do have access to disk and I believe also 12 words for the seed. I believe it was portable version since I don't see AppData/Roaming/Electrum folder. I tried entering 12 words in latest Electrum 4 but that doesn't seem to work. Do I need some kind of version compatibility or something else?

[jackg]

If you've got a full intact seed then it should work with the new version of electrum. There's likely a problem with your seed, how many words does it have in it?

Also do you know an address within the wallet?

Also portable electrum puts the wallet data in the same folder as the app you run (folder should be called electrum_data).

[Destroy666]

If you've got a full intact seed then it should work with the new version of electrum. There's likely a problem with your seed, how many words does it have in it?

Also do you know an address within the wallet?

Like I mentioned, 12. Is that the correct number (from what I've looked in Google it is)? I have also some other word combinations noted down but they're either less or more than 12.

As for address, I have something noted down but I'm not too sure it's the address, it's a 34 characters string, apparently the max size of Electrum addresses.

EDIT: I don't see electrum_data unfortunately, just Electrum 2.6.3.exe file and that's it.

[HCP]

I do have access to disk and I believe also 12 words for the seed.

That's a good start...

I believe it was portable version since I don't see AppData/Roaming/Electrum folder.

Is there anything installed in C:\Program Files\Electrum? If there is, it's not the portable version.

I tried entering 2 words in latest Electrum 4 but that doesn't seem to work.

I assume you mean 12 words... what happens when you try and type in those 12 words? Are you getting an error? Or is it creating an empty wallet? If you're getting an error, it's possible your 12 words are incorrect.

Do you remember if the 12 words came from Electrum or were originally created in a different wallet?

Do I need some kind of version compatibility or something else?

No. Electrum is backwards compatible... so seed mnemonics from older versions will work in newer versions.

[Destroy666]

Is there anything installed in C:\Program Files\Electrum? If there is, it's not the portable version.

I checked through command line (for now accessing like this) and didn't find anything. But I realized I didn't check 32 bit version of Program Files (x86) correctly, it's there so not portable. Where could the wallet data be saved then if not in Roaming? Registry? Or could the folder have been changed?

I assume you mean 12 words... what happens when you try and type in those 12 words? Are you getting an error? Or is it creating an empty wallet? If you're getting an error, it's possible your 12 words are incorrect.

I choose "Standard Wallet" and "I already have seed". Then I type 12 words in the textbox (corrected the 2nd number in 1st post). But the "next" button stays gray. I can only go further if I select "BIP39" in settings below the textbox. But it says "checksum: failed" below the textbox and if I click "next" and "Detect Existing Accounts" says "No existing accounts found", if I click next I'm asked for new password which I stopped at because I'm not too sure this is correct path.

I'm quite sure there are no other wallets where these words could have been used, but they may be for some other app (someone's messy notes unfortunately).

[Abdussamad]

electrum seeds are not bip39 so you shouldn't restore as bip39. if the next button is not being enabled then that means you have the wrong seed. spelling and order of words matters. quantity of words also matters. some old seeds used to longer. so i suggest you work your way through this faq:

https://bitcoinelectrum.com/frequently-asked-questions/#why-wont-electrum-accept-my-seed-when-i-attempt-to-restore-my-wallet-from-it

pay attention to 2b and the dictionary links in 3. tell us what you learn.

another approach is to simply find the old wallet file and use that. you can try the data dir:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-docs/blob/master/faq.rst#where-is-the-electrum-datadir-located

you can make a backup of the wallet file and then open it using file > open in latest electrum or by clicking browse on the installation wizard screen.

[Destroy666]

Ok, so the person I'm trying to help apparently had multiple addresses because I found other 13 word combination and that worked after figuring out one ugly typing of a word. But after entering a new password it was empty and had not even a single receiving address, which likely can't be the proper one because I'm certain that person used a non-expiring address at one point. And he also claims to have around 1 BTC on it. So for now I'm assuming it's true and there's another word combination I just can't find in hardly readable notes. Maybe 1 word is missing from the 12 word one I was talking about earlier.

So I think I'd rather go the files way. But even looking for hidden directiories there was no AppData/Roaming/Electrum. Tomorrow I'll try installing the old version and checking if it's possible to change the directory location/name. Will also check if there are any directories inside that directory that would result in reliable search (automatically named rather than user named)

Thanks for clues so far

[nc50lc]

Have you already used the search function of Windows explorer? Start from the root of that disk and search for "electrum".

EDIT: I don't see electrum_data unfortunately, just Electrum 2.6.3.exe file and that's it.

Electrum Windows version with that name is the stand-alone version so the data directory ('electrum' folder) should be the default unless specified through additional arg.

Tomorrow I'll try installing the old version and checking if it's possible to change the directory location/name.

It's slightly possible but it's not available for end-users.
You can change the wallet's path by adding '-w=' to the start parameters but that will still create an 'electrum' folder in appdata.
And I think that there's no option to change the whole data directory aside from flagging it as 'portable' which will create the datadir to the same folder as the executable.

[HCP]

You might also want to do a search for "default_wallet"... that is, as the name would suggest, the default wallet name that Electrum generates. Unless the user purposely changed it, the application would have generated the wallet file with that name.

Note that there is no file extension associated with Electrum wallet files.

Another suggestion would be to just search using "wallet" as the search term and see if that finds anything.

If you're operating on the command line... you'll want to use something like this:

Code:

cd \
dir /b/s *wallet*

or

Code:

cd \
dir /b/s *electrum*

etc

[BitMaxz]

Are the windows OS is corrupted and you can't able to go access the PC without getting the error?

If the OS is totally corrupted and you can't able to access it try to make a bootable USB where you can able to access the hard disk and look for a wallet file.

I suggest you try to download Hiren's Boot CD into the USB drive it has a built-in Mini OS and it has some tools that you can use to easily find the wallet file like "everything search tool".
I mostly use this as a tool for repairing a corrupted PC/laptop or to install an old OS.

Once you boot the Hiren's to mini OS look for the tool "Everything" and use this keyword (wallet) to search the folder of your Electrum wallet.
Once you find it access the folder and copy all files inside to your USB.

After that import that wallet files into Electrum(Latest) and let's hope it is the right wallet you are looking for.

[Destroy666]

This was pretty much a waste of time - the person I'm helping either forgot about their BTC ownership status or used also a different app/website for bitcoins.

Because booting into Hiren's is exactly what I did earlier today, then it was much simpler to find the wallet folder with just explorer. It was Users/<user>/.electrum/wallets which was probably the default installation path for that version on Windows. I copied the wallet file and pasted it into wallets directory on my laptop. But the account was once again empty - it is most likely just the 13 word seed account I got into earlier. Unless simply copying and opening it is not sufficient?

Anyways, thanks everyone for help so far, here's probably my last question - any clue which other app/website was popular when Electrum 2.6.3 was used (around March 2016 or a bit later from what I see) and could have been chosen by a not really technical person? The 12 word combination may be the seed for it. Unfortunately I didn't see any other obvious bitcoin app in Program Files, so probably a website? Or it could be just all imagination. Hopefully not.

[nc50lc]

-snip- But the account was once again empty - it is most likely just the 13 word seed account I got into earlier. Unless simply copying and opening it is not sufficient?

Anyways, thanks everyone for help so far, here's probably my last question - any clue which other app/website was popular when Electrum 2.6.3 was used (around March 2016 or a bit later from what I see) and could have been chosen by a not really technical person? The 12 word combination may be the seed for it. Unfortunately I didn't see any other obvious bitcoin app in Program Files, so probably a website? Or it could be just all imagination. Hopefully not.

That's just it, if it opened and the connection status is online (green circle - lower right), then what's displayed in the history and balance is his final balance.
For the other popular wallets for newbies, it can be blockchain.info (legacy version) since the seed you've mentioned is not an Electrum seed and if tried with BIP39 option, has an invalid checksum.

BTW, the path is similar, but it shouldn't have a dot before 'electrum'.

[bob123]

any clue which other app/website was popular when Electrum 2.6.3 was used (around March 2016 or a bit later from what I see) and could have been chosen by a not really technical person? The 12 word combination may be the seed for it.

If the 12 words are not a mnemonic code for electrum and not a bip39 mnemonic, they don't come from a bitcoin wallet.
An option might be blockchain.com. Their web wallet is strangely enough pretty popular.

And if i am not mistaken at some point they had a sequence of words as a "backup". Might be worth a try.