Access to an old account

[TreyHackz1010]

I need help

I am in need of help accessing (a) old bitcoin wallet(s). My father had said several times he had around 50000 btc when he first heard about it a while ago, and I don't know if they are fake btc or something but I want to access the wallet(s). Around a few months ago, my dad passed away and I ended up finding the old hard drives, I found 3 folders: "Electrum-btcp" "Electrum" and "ElectronCash" and they are all empty, I do not know where anything was stored and I just want to use the btc to get out of my hometown and go somewhere better. Can I use some help?

[jackg]

What version of electrum did he have running? Also, you should be able to go to file and see recently accessed wallet files from there (in case he had multiple and you can only find one specifically). If you meant you found an electrum folder that was empty, you could also try searching for a name like "default_wallet", "wallet" or "wallet_1".

Have you not also got access to his emails if he did pass away so you can see if his funds are on an online account that was his (ie search for "deposit" or popular exchange names where you are).

The chances he actually had 50000 btc are extremely slim, it's not impossible but it's more likely to be a lot smaller than that - it might have been a bluff too. 

[AB de Royse777]

The chances he actually had 50000 btc are extremely slim, it's not impossible but it's more likely to be a lot smaller than that - it might have been a bluff too. 

You never know. Life can surprise someone and if actually it is 50k BTC then the family will be able to buy a few country :-D

they are all empty

Do you see any transaction history on the wallets?

[TreyHackz1010]

What version of electrum did he have running? Also, you should be able to go to file and see recently accessed wallet files from there (in case he had multiple and you can only find one specifically). If you meant you found an electrum folder that was empty, you could also try searching for a name like "default_wallet", "wallet" or "wallet_1".

Have you not also got access to his emails if he did pass away so you can see if his funds are on an online account that was his (ie search for "deposit" or popular exchange names where you are).

The chances he actually had 50000 btc are extremely slim, it's not impossible but it's more likely to be a lot smaller than that - it might have been a bluff too. 

Well the last modification to the folders was around 2019, but that could not be possible as the computer was not working around that year, I think it was around 2016-18 when the pc was busted, so it could be any of those versions, and I just searched for wallet and I didn't find anything good.

HardDrive\ProgramData\aaQgoNINpzpuIQX\Files has some stuff

There's a txt file containing alot of passwords for different accounts, even some super old google accounts I can't easily access at the moment. Cookie files as well. There are some other txt files that aren't crypto related like minecraft logs and some other stuff. This was all found from the program data folder

[Yamane_Keto]

There are two good hypotheses here.

The first is that your father actually bought 50,000 bitcoins, and if we assume that he bought it at a price of one dollar, this means that at least $50,000 of his money has disappeared. If your father lost such an amount, it is better that you hire an expert because the possibility of recovering that money is $likely.

If you do not notice a decrease in financial flows from your father's money, then it is likely that this file is scam. Someone tried to scam your father and make him believe that he has this amount.

[TreyHackz1010]

There are two good hypotheses here.

The first is that your father actually bought 50,000 bitcoins, and if we assume that he bought it at a price of one dollar, this means that at least $50,000 of his money has disappeared. If your father lost such an amount, it is better that you hire an expert because the possibility of recovering that money is $likely.

If you do not notice a decrease in financial flows from your father's money, then it is likely that this file is scam. Someone tried to scam your father and make him believe that he has this amount.

My father wasn't an idiot, he knew when something was fishy, I just have to wait until I can get the other Hard Drive fixed, some bozo tried fixing it and ended up giving the click of death, If that hard drive has wallets and stuff then I will talk about it, I will also return periodically to see any other ideas and stuff, thanks for being here tho

[TreyHackz1010]

oh yeah and another thing, when the pc was messed up, I had to put it in my pc when i decide to give up my games for a hour to 2, and i can't find the executables for them, so they must be in the other hard drive, so there's that.

[NotATether]

My father wasn't an idiot, he knew when something was fishy, I just have to wait until I can get the other Hard Drive fixed, some bozo tried fixing it and ended up giving the click of death, If that hard drive has wallets and stuff then I will talk about it, I will also return periodically to see any other ideas and stuff, thanks for being here tho

You can't fix hard drives that have the click of death, because it means the physical damage has already happened and it's too late to fix it. In this case, you must get your data out of that disk right now, by contacting a recovery specialist (google: "hard drive click of death recovery") - do not attempt to run data recovery programs on the drive by yourself as you might risk bricking it.

[BitMaxz]

If you found some Electrum folder but no files inside there is a big possibility that it was hidden intentionally by your father if you are using Windows OS when accessing these folders I suggest try to uncheck hidden files, folders, and drive you can find it on control panel> folder options> advanced settings.

You can't fix hard drives that have the click of death, because it means the physical damage has already happened and it's too late to fix it. In this case, you must get your data out of that disk right now, by contacting a recovery specialist (google: "hard drive click of death recovery") - do not attempt to run data recovery programs on the drive by yourself as you might risk bricking it.

That issue is fixable even it's the click of death but all platters are fine then you can move the platter to a new host but this is not easy because you will also need to move the BIOS of the HDD controller to the new host.

[nc50lc]

My father had said several times he had around 50000 btc when he first heard about it a while ago, and I don't know if they are fake btc or something but I want to access the wallet(s).
-snip-
I found 3 folders: "Electrum-btcp" "Electrum" and "ElectronCash" and they are all empty,

Chances is, your father meant he has "50000 BTCP".
Anyways, looking for his backup is still worth it.

And speaking of backup, any of those Electrum variants (One for Bitcoin, two for Altcoins) requires a "seed phrase"
to be written as backup before the user can finish creating his wallet.

So look for papers with words written on it (12 words by default) which should be the seed phrase that can restore his wallets(s).
If you found it, get an offline PC, install Electrum and go restore it via "Standard->I already have a seed" option.
Check the addresses (View->Show Addresses) if any has balance.

[Aikidoka]

@OP good luck with your father's wallet recovery. If it indeed contains 50000 BTC, then you could become a millionaire or even a billionaire once you find your father's seed phrase, It's just crazy, but you said something like the last update from the file on the PC was on 2019? was it in the end of that year? because It was a bull run by that time and BTC price reached 19.6k$ which was a tempting price for your father to cashout some of the BTC.

Anyway be careful not to damage the failed hard drive you got and consider hiring an expert to recover the data and make sure to choose a trusted source for this service, and I hope you are able to recover the data soon.

Best of luck to you!