Recovering 10 BTC wallet from 2010

[alecfisker]

Bitcoin was bought in 2010 using paypal, price at time 0.03 USD
Wallet placed in password protected archive burned to rewritable DWD drive
After this Adobe Photoshop archive was added to same DWD drive, writing session not closed
10 years later DWD reader is not able to detect drive
Used DWD recovery tool to dump image 4GB to iso file, uploaded to google drive
Willing to share 1 BTC, who can make this ISO file mountable and possible to view archive contents
Both passwords for archive and wallet itself known

[BitMaxz]

What is the extension file of the dump image after you recover it from DWD recovery tool?

Have you already tried to use some software to convert them into ISO file?

If not and the image file extension is .img then I think Power ISO can be able to convert that or directly open it with PowerISO. You should be able to find all files inside this dump image using that software.

Another alternative is "imgtoiso" It is free software; you can google it.

[NeuroticFish]

I've recovered a couple of DVDs - either with scratches, either with protection - with IsoPuzzle. It's an old software, and it's free.
Depending on the settings it will go tougher or easier with DVD the reader device, so maybe you should start easy, e.g. with 1 minute on permanent failure and insist more only on your own risk.

But the disks I've recovered were recognized as disks. If your disk is not recognized at all... I don't know. But it may take you less than 5 minutes to see if this is a possible solution for you.

Good luck!


PS. OP, you may want to get your story right. I am 100% certain you didn't buy only 10 BTC at 3 cents a piece. That would be 30 cents for all what you've stored in the DVD. Changing the price to 0.3$ or 3$ could make sense, changing the amount to 100 or 1000 BTC would also make sense. But I highly doubt you bought only 30 cents worth of BTC.

PS2. I just noticed that the account is from 2019 and you have red tag... I wonder what you aim actually.

[alecfisker]

What is the extension file of the dump image after you recover it from DWD recovery tool?

Have you already tried to use some software to convert them into ISO file?

If not and the image file extension is .img then I think Power ISO can be able to convert that or directly open it with PowerISO. You should be able to find all files inside this dump image using that software.

Another alternative is "imgtoiso" It is free software; you can google it.

thanks for update, archive format headers do visible using hex editor inside, normal software was not able to access DWD, used special tool that did raw dump of drive, not sure if ISO format actually, more probably DWD rewritable format, dump tool copied raw bytes from DWD, means it exact DWD copy but in binary bytes format without extension
Anyways dealing with DWD boot detection sequence no longer necessary, it could be skipped because now all the data copied to file already
Wallet takes small part of data at the beginning of file, copy raw bytes, than check fully match archive specification could be possible route, at the moment archive extractor can not load it, even to show file names inside
Another route to unhash file content with known password manually
Windows 10 use unicode character table now 2 bytes per symbol, in 2010 it was in ASCII format on byte per symbol, using older 2010 PC could help

PS. OP, you may want to get your story right. I am 100% certain you didn't buy only 10 BTC at 3 cents a piece. That would be 30 cents for all what you've stored in the DVD. Changing the price to 0.3$ or 3$ could make sense, changing the amount to 100 or 1000 BTC would also make sense. But I highly doubt you bought only 30 cents worth of BTC.

It was hard to buy BTC back than, nobody was selling, only later mtgox first exchange appeared

PS2. I just noticed that the account is from 2019 and you have red tag... I wonder what you aim actually.

Some guy did not liked my other order although it was done accurate and precisely, I wish bitcointalk have dispute system for better seller protection.

[Btcspot]

 Hi have you tried opening the iso in windows powershell? Here is a link that shows how, maybe you will get access to them, let me know. Try instruction here.
 https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3579-mount-unmount-iso-img-file-windows-10-a.html

[ABCbits]

Wallet placed in password protected archive burned to rewritable DWD drive

Used DWD recovery tool to dump image 4GB to iso file, uploaded to google drive
Willing to share 1 BTC, who can make this ISO file mountable and possible to view archive contents

1. What software did you use to create the wallet file?
2. What software did you use to create password protected archive?

Those questions are important, since you could read the RAW file directly and use magic bytes/file signature to locate segment which represent the password protected archive.

[btcltcdigger]

Technically, any iso file should be mountable on a cloud infrastructure. If you got an iso, then it's a matter of just uploading it to a cloud provider and starting it there.
If it's corrupted tho, then you're out of luck. Maybe put it on github so we can give it a go

[alecfisker]

Hi have you tried opening the iso in windows powershell? Here is a link that shows how, maybe you will get access to them, let me know. Try instruction here.
 https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3579-mount-unmount-iso-img-file-windows-10-a.html

Extracted "Microsoft Basic Data" format file from ISO using zip unpacker
In powershell "Virtual format adapter not found" message
Another virtual drive manager says "Unsupported version"

Wallet placed in password protected archive burned to rewritable DWD drive

Used DWD recovery tool to dump image 4GB to iso file, uploaded to google drive
Willing to share 1 BTC, who can make this ISO file mountable and possible to view archive contents

1. What software did you use to create the wallet file?
Native BTC wallet
2. What software did you use to create password protected archive?
WinRar
Those questions are important, since you could read the RAW file directly and use magic bytes/file signature to locate segment which represent the password protected archive.
Already done RAW file saved as "Microsoft Basic Data",  magic bytes found

Technically, any iso file should be mountable on a cloud infrastructure. If you got an iso, then it's a matter of just uploading it to a cloud provider and starting it there.
If it's corrupted tho, then you're out of luck. Maybe put it on github so we can give it a go

[pawanjain]

Bitcoin was bought in 2010 using paypal, price at time 0.03 USD
Wallet placed in password protected archive burned to rewritable DWD drive
After this Adobe Photoshop archive was added to same DWD drive, writing session not closed
10 years later DWD reader is not able to detect drive
Used DWD recovery tool to dump image 4GB to iso file, uploaded to google drive
Willing to share 1 BTC, who can make this ISO file mountable and possible to view archive contents
Both passwords for archive and wallet itself known

So all you have to do is mount the ISO image and read it's contents ?
You can do that easily by doing a little research. Why offer 1 BTC for it ?

I would suggest directly opening the ISO image in winrar and extract it.
If it doesn't work then try using PowerISO which is a tool to mount ISO images.

[alecfisker]

Bitcoin was bought in 2010 using paypal, price at time 0.03 USD
Wallet placed in password protected archive burned to rewritable DWD drive
After this Adobe Photoshop archive was added to same DWD drive, writing session not closed
10 years later DWD reader is not able to detect drive
Used DWD recovery tool to dump image 4GB to iso file, uploaded to google drive
Willing to share 1 BTC, who can make this ISO file mountable and possible to view archive contents
Both passwords for archive and wallet itself known

So all you have to do is mount the ISO image and read it's contents ?
You can do that easily by doing a little research. Why offer 1 BTC for it ?

I would suggest directly opening the ISO image in winrar and extract it.
If it doesn't work then try using PowerISO which is a tool to mount ISO images.

It does not want to mount in Windows 10, guess PC from 2010 required with Windows 7 to open it
Tried other combinations, other specialist messaged that he was actually able to open it up to step when archive file list is visible, yet waiting for reply from him, steps was used.

[Cricktor]

So your first writing session on the rewritable optical media has the password protected archive with your wallet file in it.

Do you remember that your second non-finalized writing session that wrote the Photoshop archive extended the first session, i.e. both archives should've been visible after your wrote the second session? You did verify that your written backups were initially readable, didn't you?

Have you checked that your DVD-RW reading device is working properly?

Have you tried with another optical reading device?

Which software specifically did write the sessions to the optical media?

What kind of archives have you used specifically (zip, rar, ...)?


When you offer 1BTC, why don't you go to a professional data recovery company? It's likely they would charge you far less, but you would've to pay upfront.

[alecfisker]

So your first writing session on the rewritable optical media has the password protected archive with your wallet file in it.

confirm

Do you remember that your second non-finalized writing session that wrote the Photoshop archive extended the first session, i.e. both archives should've been visible after your wrote the second session? You did verify that your written backups were initially readable, didn't you?

was readable

Have you checked that your DVD-RW reading device is working properly?

checked

Have you tried with another optical reading device?

I did

Which software specifically did write the sessions to the optical media?

not sure, guess it was windows 7 built in burner

What kind of archives have you used specifically (zip, rar, ...)?

rar, zip

[bulleteyedk]

I assume the archive type used is .zip ? you did not mention.
I've managed to carve through the content, and i've not found anything related to bitcoin, yet.

From testing zip and rar files with both normal archives and encrypted with password, some of the content should still be possible to read in hex, at least that was possible for me when i tested with just a .txt document inside a test zip and rar archive.

I've had no luck finding any password protected files (the 2 types possible to create in modern day zip)

Is the file you're looking for named: recovery.txt ? i've found information about a file named that, that file was created in july 2017

[alecfisker]

I assume the archive type used is .zip ? you did not mention.
I've managed to carve through the content, and i've not found anything related to bitcoin, yet.

From testing zip and rar files with both normal archives and encrypted with password, some of the content should still be possible to read in hex, at least that was possible for me when i tested with just a .txt document inside a test zip and rar archive.

I've had no luck finding any password protected files (the 2 types possible to create in modern day zip)

Is the file you're looking for named: recovery.txt ? i've found information about a file named that, that file was created in July 2017

was only two write sessions first in 2010, second two years later
it was exactly 10 BTC,
possible explorer scan for that period with BTC address that received exact amount and staying dormant

making any of the archive unpacker recognize data and ask for password could help
windows built in archiver can manage multiple password protected file type confirmed

[Mpamaegbu]

~snipped~

It was hard to buy BTC back than, nobody was selling, only later mtgox first exchange appeared

That should be some consolation for those of us who didn't know about Bitcoin at that time. At least we can reassure ourselves that it wasn't easy buying it even if one had the means to do so then. Looking at what Bitcoin has become now, for someone who knew about it then but didn't buy, it's heartbreaking.

As for OP, I hope you get to recover your Bitcoin. 10BTC is a hell of money now. It will be financially soothing if you can get hodl of that.

[bulleteyedk]

Maybe this is the wrong DVD ?

Many of the files recovered has timestamps from 2016 and 2018, which they should'nt have according to your memory
I can provide the recovered files for you, reach out to me in a direct message with a mail address i can send the files to.

EDIT: i've not seen anything related to bitcoin, and also not any password protected archives

[alecfisker]

Maybe this is the wrong DVD ?

Many of the files recovered has timestamps from 2016 and 2018, which they should'nt have according to your memory
I can provide the recovered files for you, reach out to me in a direct message with a mail address i can send the files to.

EDIT: i've not seen anything related to bitcoin, and also not any password protected archives

thanks for update anyways progress done, have to check and confirm wrong DWD possibility, reupload

[Cricktor]

What kind of archives have you used specifically (zip, rar, ...)?

rar, zip

Let me be more specific, should've asked more to the point in the first place: which archive format have you used for your password protected wallet archive file?

I downloaded both your files, iso and the other which appears to be some Microsoft partition. Not sure how both were produced and seems a bit odd that this comes from an optical media which uses some sort of iso9660 variant IIRC.

Looking into the iso, I was puzzled to see some clues for GPT partitions. Mounting the iso as loop device and feeding it into parted some complains popped up, like a corrupted Master File Table but as GPT partitions contain copies of the MFT one was found to be intact. Anyway, I'm not terribly good with partition tools and couldn't get parted to give me anything good out of it.

Frankly, as what appears to be an iso file (something in the realm of iso9660) might be something else. But I didn't have time to thoroughly check if this is a real iso file. It doesn't mount properly, when mounted looks a lot like some garbage with some little non-garbage bits sprinkled in between.

Let me ask because AFAIR you didn't say anything about it: if your optical media isn't recognized in your optical drives then how did you produce an iso file of it? Which software did you use (I hope I didn't overread it) and how? I don't want to waste my time on garbage data.

I found a few zip signatures which looked like some Microsoft or Adobe zipped shit, but didn't dive deep into it. First only looked for unencrypted zip file signatures.

Maybe this is the wrong DVD ?

That would be a bummer and well, quite a bit of a fail...

[alecfisker]

used DOS assembler written tool (downloaded from optical media recovery toll site) that accessed DWD directly without detection sequence required
usually hardware DWD reader first have to detect, it was like infinite loop moving dwd heads sound tryin to detect it for about few minutes than silence
assembler written tool skipped detection stage somehow and copied data sector by sector to dump file on PC drive
it is not ISO, it RAW copy of DWD sectors stored in one file, to confirm it is not garbage archiver was able to extract "Microsoft Basic Data" partition from it
password protected archive usually produce data looking like garbage actually it is not
zip signatures is exactly Im looking for, possible select zip signature with further data in hex editor and save as separate file would be great
not sure in what order files stored in DWD, wallet archive should be first one small file (megabytes size) at the beginning of data
send me steps in private how partiton was mounted
the only explanation why it is not standard ISO format, DWD was used as bootable system drive for both unix, windows before data storage

[bulleteyedk]

I've just sent OP a mail containing a veracrypt container of the recovered zip files (198)

I would have sent the files through gmail packed with winzip, but gmail found virus in the zip files, so that wasn't a possibility.
So for anyone looking into this, just be careful with any recovered files, as they may contain virus.

I have not extracted any of the zip files, only touched them to see the content, none of the zip files has content related to bitcoin.