Deleting Armory wallet

[Tolosi]

I tried to find answer here but no luck so I will ask - risking that the answer is already available on some place I did not look into.

So question is: What actuality happens if Armory is used and wallet deleted from after use by pressing Delete/Remove Wallet button on the Wallet Properties screen?

Is wallet file on the disc deleted?
Can this deleted wallet file be somehow restored and keys recovered and bitcoins get stolen?

In essence the question is: is laptop or PC with Armory wallet previously DELETED as above, is stolen/lost?
Is it possible to recover bitcoins from it?

[1715678317]

1715678317

[hosseinimr93]

So question is: What actuality happens if Armory is used and wallet deleted from after use by pressing Delete/Remove Wallet button on the Wallet Properties screen?

The wallet file will be deleted and you will need the wallet's root key or your private key(s) to access your bitcoin.

Can this deleted wallet file be somehow restored and keys recovered and bitcoins get stolen?

It's possible that the files that have been deleted from your device can be restored using a data recovery tool. So, the wallet file hasn't permanently gone.
If you want the files to be permanently removed, you should wipe your hard drive using an eraser tool.

[Tolosi]

What file holds private keys?
I would rather safely erase/overwrite this critical file only by myself using specialised file eraser software instead of whole disk.
That would eliminate the possibility of leaking private keys from the restored wallet file/files.

[nc50lc]

I tried to find answer here but no luck so I will ask - risking that the answer is already available on some place I did not look into.
-snip-
So question is: What actuality happens if Armory is used and wallet deleted from after use by pressing Delete/Remove Wallet button on the Wallet Properties screen?

The wallet file from your Armory datadir will be deleted in the file system as well.
The file name should be similar to "armory_xxxxxxxx_encrypt.wallet".

Here's a related topic with sufficient answers: Delete/Remove Wallet - shred/overwrite, or merely filesystem delete?

[goatpig]

This is what happens in code (https://github.com/goatpig/BitcoinArmory/blob/master/qtdialogs.py#L4154):

Code:

            LOGINFO('***Completely deleting wallet')
            os.remove(thepath)
            os.remove(thepathBackup)
            self.main.removeWalletFromApplication(wltID)
            self.main.statusBar().showMessage( \
               self.tr('Wallet %1 was deleted!').arg(wltID), 10000)

It asks the operating system to delete the file on disk (and its backup). This is a soft deletion. From the perspective of the OS, it will mark the relevant sectors as unused on disk and the data will remain there until the sectors are reused.

With SSDs, since they spread data across cells to increase IO speeds, they also have a built in garbage collector that actively reclaims unused sectors, meaning the likelyhood someone will be able to recover the files months from now if the SSD sees usage is very small (even if it's far from maxing its storage capacity).

For a HDD, it's the opposite. You could likely recover the files years in the future if you didn't actively try to wipe the data.

The newer code makes a point of writing jibberish in the sectors before deleting the file in an attempt to make the data irretrievable. There is no guarantee this works across all OS and hardware. If you want a guarantee your data is wiped, you can use dedicated software to that avail.

[Tolosi]

Thanks for explanation.