changed seed phrase on new laptop, does older lap top wallet still work?

[kyndlyon]

the new laptop was stolen. i have the hard drive from older laptop w/all my Electrum info. can i use that to retrieve my wallet. i was thinking i could insert the hard drive into another windows computer and make it work. i know my password, but not the new key.

[Findingnemo]

Recovery seed will work on every device where you import the wallet and that is the actual purpose of recovery seed.

Before doing anything with your hard disk, just create a copy of the hard drive with another SSD or HDD so that your data is safe when you try to boot the hard drive with another system and it corrupts the wallet file.

But what you need to do is to create a new Electrum wallet and move all your funds back to the new address because the one who stole the laptop can access the funds too even if the system is password protected cause it won't take too long to brute force your laptop's password.

[Charles-Tim]

How about your seed phrase? I mean the 12 word backup. If you have the seed phrase, you can use it for the recovery. All you have to do is to download Electrum, verify the PGP signature and import your seed phrase and you will be able to spend your coins if you want.

If you do not have it, then you can go for the hard drive to see if it would work or not. But I think it would work.

As Findingnemo commented already, you suppose to backup your seed phrase, it is very important and it will be helpful in this kind of situation.

[kyndlyon]

How about this you seed phrase? I mean the 12 word backup. If you have the seed phrase , you can use it for the recovery.

If you do not have it, then you can go for the hard drive to see if it would work or not. But I think it would work.

i dont have the new seed phrase

[Findingnemo]

i dont have the new seed phrase

What do you mean by the new seed?

The recovery seed is still the same no matter how many times you imported the wallet to different devices.

Or you are saying that you created a new electrum on your new laptop and moved all your funds to it?

original seed was the one Electrum provided when i created account. i changed it to my own custom 12 word seed on new/stolen laptop

You can't change the seeds after creating a wallet, different seeds will give you a completely different address and private keys not the same.

[kyndlyon]

i dont have the new seed phrase

What do you mean by the new seed?

The recovery seed is still the same no matter how many times you imported the wallet to different devices.

Or you are saying that you created a new electrum on your new laptop and moved all your funds to it?

original seed was the one Electrum provided when i created account. i changed it to my own custom 12 word seed on new/stolen laptop

[hosseinimr93]

original seed was the one Electrum provided when i created account. i changed it to my own custom 12 word seed on new/stolen laptop

This is not possible. You can't change the seed phrase. A different seed phrase gives you completely different addresses.
Do you mean you created a new wallet with a customized seed phrase and you moved all the fund to the new wallet? If so, you need the seed phrase of the new wallet or its file and if you have none of them, there is no way to recover your wallet.

[Charles-Tim]

original seed was the one Electrum provided when i created account. i changed it to my own custom 12 word seed on new/stolen laptop

This is not clear.

When you created Electrum wallet on the old laptop, you have 12 word seed phrase.
When you bought new laptop, did you import the old laptop Electrum wallet seed phrase on your new Electum wallet on the new laptop? Or you just created another wallet on the new laptop and send you coins from the wallet on old laptop to the wallet on the new laptop?

[kyndlyon]

original seed was the one Electrum provided when i created account. i changed it to my own custom 12 word seed on new/stolen laptop

This is not clear.

When you created Electrum wallet on the old laptop, you have 12 word seed phrase.
When you bought new laptop, did you import the old laptop Electrum wallet seed phrase on your new Electum wallet on the new laptop? Or you just created another wallet on the new laptop and send you coins from old laptop?

i used the old seed to recover wallet on new laptop. i then changed it

[Charles-Tim]

i used the old seed to recover wallet on new laptop. i then changed it

As hosseinimr93 commented already, that is not possible. Is the seed phrase on the Electrum wallet on old laptop the same as the seed phrase on Electum wallet on new laptop? You need to answer this in a way it would be clear for us to understand.

If the seed phrase are not the same, you need the backup of the seed phrase of the Electrum wallet on the new laptop to recover your wallet.

If it is the same seed phrase, you can go for the hard drive and see if you can recover your wallet with the Electrum on the hard drive.

[Husna QA]

i dont have the new seed phrase

If you have information about the seed phrase of the Electrum wallet that was on your stolen laptop, you can still create a new wallet on another computer using that seed. I recommend you move your assets to your new wallet.

However, if you do not have the seed phrase, you can not recover it.

Or, if you still have a backup of the wallet file, you should at least know the password to open it on another Electrum if the wallet uses a password.

[hosseinimr93]

i used the old seed to recover wallet on new laptop. i then changed it

Again, this is not possible. If you imported a different seed phrase, you created a different wallet with different addresses and that has nothing to do with the old wallet. Take note that all your private keys and addresses are derived from your seed phrase and it's not possible to change the seed phrase and still have the same wallet.

Can you please tell us what steps you exactly did, so that we may be able to help you?

[satscraper]

i used the old seed to recover wallet on new laptop. i then changed it

[If you created wallet relevant to new SEED] & [if that wallet is on your new laptop] & [if your  new laptop is stolen] & [if you don't have new SEED] & [if  you have hard drive with wallets pertaining to old SEED] then [ hard drive  connected to other computer will not help]. As simple as that. Some conditions written in the left square brackets must be changed to make restoration possible.

[kyndlyon]

i used the old seed to recover wallet on new laptop. i then changed it

Again, this is not possible. If you imported a different seed phrase, you created a different wallet with different addresses and that has nothing to do with the old wallet. Take note that all your private keys and addresses are derived from your seed phrase and it's not possible to change the seed phrase and still have the same wallet.

Can you please tell us what steps you exactly did, so that we may be able to help you?

ty for the reply. memory is a bit foggy...been over 2 years since i thought i changed seed phrase. the thing is, i tried plugging in the original 12 seed today, but the "next" option would not allow me to click...meaning the seed does not exist. so, i have the hard drive from other laptop w/all the Electrum info. seems i should be able to transfer to flash drive, buy a new laptop & access the key from flash drive?

[Charles-Tim]

the thing is, i tried plugging in the original 12 seed today, but the "next" option would not allow me to click

Hope it is not BIP39 seed phrase? Click on 'options' to change it to BIP39 seed if it is.

[BitMaxz]

ty for the reply. memory is a bit foggy...been over 2 years since i thought i changed seed phrase. the thing is, i tried plugging in the original 12 seed today, but the "next" option would not allow me to click...meaning the seed does not exist. so, i have the hard drive from other laptop w/all the Electrum info. seems i should be able to transfer to flash drive, buy a new laptop & access the key from flash drive?

It seems your old wallet seed backup is BIP39 try that option as suggested above.

About the hard drive I think you can use it as an external hard drive you can  ise enclosure USB to Sata adapter to be able to use the old hard drive as external.

Would you mind to tell us what Electrum info is in your old HDD?
If it's a wallet file that's good you can open it on Electrum.

[kyndlyon]

the thing is, i tried plugging in the original 12 seed today, but the "next" option would not allow me to click

Hope it is not BIP39 seed phrase? Click on 'options' to change it to BIP39 seed if it is.


https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/09/27/PRa2f.jpeg

i dont see that option on Linux version i just downloaded

[kyndlyon]

so i just successfully retrieved my wallet by using flash drive on new laptop. but now my PW is not working...likely because i am entering wrong. what can i do now?

[hosseinimr93]

so i just successfully retrieved my wallet by using flash drive on new laptop. but now my PW is not working...likely because i am entering wrong. what can i do now?

It means that you are entering an incorrect password.

Generally speaking, for having access to your fund, you should either have the wallet file (+ password, if it's encrypted) or the seed phrase.
If you don't remember the password and it's not complicated, you may be able to brute-force it. If you can't do so and you don't have the seed phrase, there is no way to recover the wallet.

[kyndlyon]

got it figured out