Looking for advice on what to do with my hard drive

[bayarea_coin]

I have a hard drive (and a backup flash drive) with a file I stupidly encrypted years ago that contains, among other things, my bitcoin wallet and login info.
At this point I have pretty much given up on ever cracking it (I originally used 7zip to encrypt the file) and was looking into how to just sell it. I checked Ebay but many forums say expensive things on Ebay is super risky (600 coins in it).
Does anyone have any advice on what to do with my drive or what groups to contact? Security research groups or investment groups? It has already caused me tons of heart ache over the years and have already talked to tech security people and am mostly looking to just get what little value from it it might have.
I am located in the San Francisco area if anyone knows contacts there.

[ranochigo]

No one would be buying encrypted files. There is no way to verify if that is the only copy of the encrypted files or if the wallet file is actually inside.

If you don't want to spend some money or resources to try to crack it, then I would advise you to just leave it at that.

[bayarea_coin]

I spent tons of time looking into how to crack it, ha. Thats whats depressing. I guess its just hard to accept that its lost and worth literally nothing.

[cabron]

No one would be buying encrypted files. There is no way to verify if that is the only copy of the encrypted files or if the wallet file is actually inside.

If you don't want to spend some money or resources to try to crack it, then I would advise you to just leave it at that.

No one is trusting anyone when they know there might be nothing in the drive. What OP could do is just learn how to decrypt it himself. Maybe there is a crash course for being computer forensics and I bet a computer forensic also have to learn some languages in order to read the line of codes. This is going to be a long process.

But since you are the only one who could only give proof that there is something valuable inside, you would probably figure it's worth doing.

[bayarea_coin]

I already do a decent amount of coding for my job and had talked to a couple of internet security guys over the years about advice on cracking. Never got anything great. I guess I will just have to hope quantum computing delivers in my lifetime.....

[UserU]

There's this reputable guy that has been in business for years, called Wallet Recovery Services.

Thing is, he charges a pretty penny of 20% fees of the Bitcoin held, but it's worth a shot if the wallet is important.

[aoluain]

I definitely wouldnt give up on this if there are 600 coins in it. 20% fee to me sounds like
a bargain, at the moment you have nothing!

I dont know about encryption but I came across this:
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-crack-a-7z-file-password

Although 7zip can uses 256 bit AES encryption which itself can't be cracked by brutal force in anyone's lifetime, but the password that it uses to protected the encryption key is the weak link, simply because it need to remembered by human being.

So all you need is to recover the password, obviously you cannot remember or have an
idea of the passwords you used back then, I would try that recommendation above with
the hope to get 80% of what is in it !

[sirstevie6]

If the file is only encrypted and not corrupt there is  a fair chance of recovering the password.
I have been recovering lost and forgotten passwords for over 20 years now.
Your only problem is to find somone you trust enough not to run away with your coins.
My success rate is about 80% on pc files and under 20% on bitcoin wallets.
Feel free to reach out, otherwise I wish you luck in finding a trustworthy person.

[20kevin20]

I'd keep it and hope that maybe, just maybe, there is somehow a way to break through the encryption. Perhaps a weakness of encryption or some new technology or corporation that'd have enough power to decrypt it. I'd rather just keep it than put it up for sale because chances are.. nobody will pay a lot of bucks for something they can't access.

Or perhaps you'll someday just find out how you encrypted it and will be able to unlock it back. I'd not risk selling it.