Laptop won't boot, only have my password (no backup). Are my coins gone forever?

[JFSD]

I am new here, but have been researching my situation, so I finally decided to post to confirm my findings.

I have an IBM ThinkPad laptop running Windows XP and Armory (I don't know which version). This laptop was powered off and stored in a bag for the last 5-8 years (I don't know the exact time frame because I am doing this research for a friend). I tried to boot the laptop and it failed. The hard drive made many strange (bad) noises and the boot loader failed with the message:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable.
Operating system not found

I pulled the drive out for visual inspection and there were no signs of damaged pins or anything suspicious.

All I have from my friend is his Armory password. He does not have a backup nor does he have his private keys.

I am trying to determine my options. I started to read about data recovery services and most of them can provide a copy of the data from a failed hard drive, but make no guarantees about restoring the original hard drive to a working condition.

Question: Can I recover my wallet using just a password and a copy of the Armory files? If so, how?

I read the disclaimer on this sticky post about backups
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152151.0

If you have no backup at all, and your hard drive crashes, you will lose your coins forever.
If you have no backup or only a digital backup, and you forgot your encryption passphrase, you will lose your coins forever.

Is there any chance of recovery?

[1715226832]

1715226832

[BitMaxz]

There is no guaranteed solution but let's try to recover your wallet without damaging the whole hard drive.

Do you have an extra laptop/PC and an extra USB flash drive?

I would like to suggest make bootable Hirens with your USB flash drive. You can download the Hiren's from here https://www.hirensbootcd.org/old-versions/

I used this tool for many years to repair laptop and PC and used for data recoveries they have many options to recover data but first, we need to check if it can read the hard drive that you want to recover.
Follow this link below how to make a bootable USB flash drive
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQGdd5GsRz0

Once you make a bootable USB run it in your extra PC/Laptop make sure that you change the hard drive with your hard drive from the old laptop where you want to get the data of your armory wallet.
Choose mini XP or Win 7 it will boot as a normal OS from USB use that to explore the hard drive.
This should be look like this below


And then open My computer and check if the old hard drive is there then try to access it. Update here once you can access it let see if we can still find the wallet file from your old wallet.

[TheBeardedBaby]

There is a good HDD testing tool in this Hirens boot CD, When you open the HBCD Menu, navigate to Victoria to test the hard drive and check the status.
See below:


You can check the SMART status, click on "get smart" button,



You can also click scan the drive > go to "Test" and click "Scan"



Post the results here if you don't know what to look for.. All the grey sectors are fine, all the colorful are not good (except for the green, it's not good but it's not fatal)

I don't think it will be problem to recover the wallet

Good luck

[nc50lc]

Question: Can I recover my wallet using just a password and a copy of the Armory files? If so, how?

This depends on what "Armory files" you have.
If it's the data directory which consist of 'databases' folder, armorylog.txt, dblog.txt, then there should be some armory wallet files in there.
a wallet file named like "armory_xxxxxxx_encrypt.wallet" is basically the wallet itself.
If it's the install folder of Armory which contains the executables, then it's useless as a backup.

For the password, it's useless without a backup of the wallet file as you've read in that sticky thread.

[JFSD]

Yes, I have an extra computer. I will try the bootable USB as you've described.

My main concern with the drive was that all of the data recovery services say NOT to power on the drive after it has failed, or you risk further damage. Obviously it has to be powered on eventually, but a professional service might do an internal inspection of the hardware first (in a "clean room"). I'm trying my best not to mess this up and also wondering how much (if anything) I can do myself.

OK, so it sounds like there is hope if I can recover the necessary files. Thanks! I will post when I have an update.

If you're interested, here is a video where you can hear the awful sounds the laptop makes when trying to boot.
https://youtu.be/lUcboH-mtVc

(Edited for more and correct info)

[nc50lc]

My main concern with the drive was that all of the data recovery services say NOT to power on the drive after it has failed, or you risk further damage.
-snip-
If you're interested, here is a video where you can hear the awful sounds the laptop makes when trying to boot.
https://youtu.be/lUcboH-mtVc

With that screeching sound, you absolutely don't wanna plug and power that HDD!
That sounds like the actuator arm's head scratching the data platter because of some hardware failure, your data are being damaged whenever you hear it.

It's best to leave it to HDD hardware professionals.

[TheBeardedBaby]

My main concern with the drive was that all of the data recovery services say NOT to power on the drive after it has failed, or you risk further damage.
-snip-
If you're interested, here is a video where you can hear the awful sounds the laptop makes when trying to boot.
https://youtu.be/lUcboH-mtVc

With that screeching sound, you absolutely don't wanna plug and power that HDD!
That sounds like the actuator arm's head scratching the data platter because of some hardware failure, your data are being damaged whenever you hear it.

It's best to leave it to HDD hardware professionals.

Agree. Try to find some reputable data recovery company.

[JFSD]

Yikes, that's what I was worried about. Well, at least that gets me to the next step in the process. I don't suppose anyone here has first-hand experience with a reputable data recovery company? I have a couple leads on local shops so I'll see what they say.

In the meantime, I'll see if my friend is absolutely sure he doesn't have the root key.

[JFSD]

Question: Can I recover my wallet using just a password and a copy of the Armory files? If so, how?

This depends on what "Armory files" you have.
If it's the data directory which consist of 'databases' folder, armorylog.txt, dblog.txt, then there should be some armory wallet files in there.
a wallet file named like "armory_xxxxxxx_encrypt.wallet" is basically the wallet itself.
If it's the install folder of Armory which contains the executables, then it's useless as a backup.

For the password, it's useless without a backup of the wallet file as you've read in that sticky thread.

Can you point me to a guide or tutorial on the process of recovering private keys from the encrypted wallet files using the Armory password? I assume that once I have the private keys I can restore the wallet on a new computer and fresh install of Armory, correct?

No update on my data recovery process. We are double-checking that a paper backup does not exist.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Question: Can I recover my wallet using just a password and a copy of the Armory files? If so, how?

This depends on what "Armory files" you have.
If it's the data directory which consist of 'databases' folder, armorylog.txt, dblog.txt, then there should be some armory wallet files in there.
a wallet file named like "armory_xxxxxxx_encrypt.wallet" is basically the wallet itself.
If it's the install folder of Armory which contains the executables, then it's useless as a backup.

For the password, it's useless without a backup of the wallet file as you've read in that sticky thread.

Can you point me to a guide or tutorial on the process of recovering private keys from the encrypted wallet files using the Armory password? I assume that once I have the private keys I can restore the wallet on a new computer and fresh install of Armory, correct?

No update on my data recovery process. We are double-checking that a paper backup does not exist.

If you have the wallet itself then you can probably follow this guide to restore the funds : https://www.bitcoinarmory.com/tutorials/armory-basics/restore-wallet/
Never use the original file, use copy to be sure that any wrong steps wont affect the original file.

[nc50lc]

Question: Can I recover my wallet using just a password and a copy of the Armory files? If so, how?

This depends on what "Armory files" you have.
-snip-

Can you point me to a guide or tutorial on the process of recovering private keys from the encrypted wallet files using the Armory password? I assume that once I have the private keys I can restore the wallet on a new computer and fresh install of Armory, correct?

It's easy if you have the encrypted wallet file and its password. Just paste it in Armory's data directory, example location: https://btcarmory.com/docs/pathing#example
Then start Armory, it will "mirror" the wallet if it has no ".imdb" & .imdb-lock files.

To get the private keys, just proceed to "Export Key List" backup option, it'll work even if Armory is offline.
HCP has a detailed tutorial: Re: is it possible to import Armory wallet into any other wallet?

[JFSD]

Question: Can I recover my wallet using just a password and a copy of the Armory files? If so, how?

It's easy if you have the encrypted wallet file and its password. Just paste it in Armory's data directory, example location: https://btcarmory.com/docs/pathing#example
Then start Armory, it will "mirror" the wallet if it has no ".imdb" & .imdb-lock files.

To get the private keys, just proceed to "Export Key List" backup option, it'll work even if Armory is offline.
HCP has a detailed tutorial: Re: is it possible to import Armory wallet into any other wallet?

That was the clarification (and reassurance) I needed. I did some searching in the forum and had just about figured this out myself.  Thank you!