Accessing wallet.dat file on corrupted Hard drive

[Kizzabitcoin]

I've been given a few leads on this by various members here so thanks to them.  Just wanted to put my issue out as a topic to get more ideas as this is critical to my chances of recovering my funds, and so others can benefit from the discussion.

So I pulled a hard drive out of an old broken laptop I had used to download a bitcoin 10 years or so ago.  I opened the drive using a SATA cable on my new laptop and transferred the bitcoin-qt file across to my laptop internal HD and began downloading the blockchain.
It was halfway through this process that I realised I had only grabbed the bitcore software file and not the wallet.dat file that I would need to claim my bitcoin.

So, I plugged the old hard drive back in only to have an error message appear telling me that the file is corrupted.  I cannot access any files on the old hard drive at all, let alone the wallet.dat file.

So now I need to access that file, without changing it.

Help appreciated, but please, as you can see from my "newbie" status, you legends will need to keep the language rrreeeeal simple 

[Kizzabitcoin]

1.  The message says, E:/ is not accessible.  The parameter is incorrect.
2. Yes I believe the message is from file explorer

I have tried all ports available (3) and installed a new virus scan (norton)

Interesting that the original message was that the file was corrupted but now say parameter is incorrect. No idea what that means.  I would post screen shots but no idea how to do that on this forum

[LoyceV]

send me an email

I highly recommend to ignore this request and all similar "offers" you may receive by PM. See How can we protect Newbies from getting scammed?.

[LoyceV]

I am far from spam

If it would be spam, I would just report it and a Mod would remove your post. I'm warning against a scam. You're not the first to get angry after being called out.

nothing to hide here.

Great! Then discuss your offer in public.

my equipment is real 44 Core Dual Xeon

That's not going to matter with a corrupted hard drive.

I offer Wallet Recovery Services

What are the odds of someone claiming to be "Dave" offering Wallet Recovery Services?
There's only one Dave I would trust in this business, and it's not you. It's this guy:

I have put together a service to help you recover your wallet password (for your encrypted bitcoin wallet) if you have forgotten it.
~
Dave

[WhyFhy]

@OP please make sure you back your drive up before poking it, poke the backup.

[Kizzabitcoin]

Wow, thought I'd wake up to a cool thread about recovering hard drives.. Instead I read about Dave.. double thumbs up

[rterwedo]

Is the wallet encrypted?  If not why not just scan the HD contents (assuming it can be mounted) looking for the private keys?

Its relatively straightforward, no cracking or anything is needed.

[ABCbits]

Interesting that the original message was that the file was corrupted but now say parameter is incorrect. No idea what that means.

On windows, usually i would use chkdsk tool. But since the hard drive contain important file, i strongly recommend you to make a raw copy of your hard drive before doing anything else. On windows, usually i use HDD Raw Copy Tool to do it.

I would post screen shots but no idea how to do that on this forum

You can upload it somewhere (such as imgur) and share the link.

[Kizzabitcoin]

Interesting that the original message was that the file was corrupted but now say parameter is incorrect. No idea what that means.

On windows, usually i would use chkdsk tool. But since the hard drive contain important file, i strongly recommend you to make a raw copy of your hard drive before doing anything else. On windows, usually i use HDD Raw Copy Tool to do it.

I would post screen shots but no idea how to do that on this forum

You can upload it somewhere (such as imgur) and share the link.

I ran Raw copy tool as you suggested and it cam up with the following messages;

29/03/2021 12:13:27 PM   Unable to lock source device. Make sure you do not have open files on this device and try again.
29/03/2021 12:13:27 PM   NOTE: This tool will NOT copy your boot (OS system) hard drive. The tool requires absolutely exclusive access to the source media.
29/03/2021 12:13:27 PM   If you want to copy/image your boot hard drive, then you would need to attach it temporarily to another PC and perform the task on that PC.

Looks like it recognises it as a "boot hard drive" and won't copy it.

[NotATether]

I ran Raw copy tool as you suggested and it cam up with the following messages;

29/03/2021 12:13:27 PM   Unable to lock source device. Make sure you do not have open files on this device and try again.
29/03/2021 12:13:27 PM   NOTE: This tool will NOT copy your boot (OS system) hard drive. The tool requires absolutely exclusive access to the source media.
29/03/2021 12:13:27 PM   If you want to copy/image your boot hard drive, then you would need to attach it temporarily to another PC and perform the task on that PC.

Looks like it recognises it as a "boot hard drive" and won't copy it.

But it's not the boot drive, because it's mounted on E:\. Boot drives (the one the current running OS is using) are only mounted on C:\. That means there is a program running on your computer that has files opened on that drive.

You should reboot the computer in Safe Mode (to avoid any programs that autostart) and attempt the copy again.

[Kizzabitcoin]

Thanks for the ideas.

It all got too hard and I was worried about making things worse, so I took it to the local IT shop.  They put it in a "bed" (I've no idea), 24 hrs and 100 bucks later I got the file.

[Kizzabitcoin]

Thanks for the ideas.

It all got too hard and I was worried about making things worse, so I took it to the local IT shop.  They put it in a "bed" (I've no idea), 24 hrs and 100 bucks later I got the file.

I think it's a bit expensive, but still better than doing it yourself (since apparently you never done it before).

Anyway, does that mean you already copy wallet.dat to your current laptop where Bitcoin Core doesn't show any error and just waiting until it's fully synced?

So yeah, I think so fingers crossed.  Could be the best 100 bucks I ever spent. I've used coinchair to prove it actually exists- it does.  And once I synced past the date I deposited the original funds I checked my wallet addresses and the same address appeared there.  So feeling pretty good about it.  My main concern it if its encrypted with a passphrase or somesuch. Playing the waiting game...

[LoyceV]

My main concern it if its encrypted with a passphrase or somesuch. Playing the waiting game...

That's easy to test. In Bitcoin Core's console, use the walletpassphrase command:

Code:

walletpassphrase "passphrase" timeout

Stores the wallet decryption key in memory for 'timeout' seconds.

Example:

Unlock the wallet for 60 seconds
walletpassphrase "my pass phrase" 60