EPIC fail

[RyNinDaCleM]

There is a reason why software devs go to school for programming. It isn't as simple as watching a yootoob vid and BAM, your writing code. I'm self taught C++ and I assure you, there is nothing *easy* about learning a first language.

[1714042946]

1714042946

[1714042946]

1714042946

[NINJA--]

I have the hex editor open and the wallet loaded. I may ask a few dumb questions along the way but if somebody can tell me what to do I CAN handle this.

[payb.tc]

I have the hex editor open and the wallet loaded. I may ask a few dumb questions along the way but if somebody can tell me what to do I CAN handle this.

have you searched/found the first occurrence of 04 20?

[NINJA--]

No I dont even know what that means. Looking at this text editor and all these rows of numbers and letters its starting to sink in that I might not be able to handle this.

[legolouman]

There is a reason why software devs go to school for programming. It isn't as simple as watching a yootoob vid and BAM, your writing code. I'm self taught C++ and I assure you, there is nothing *easy* about learning a first language.

I don't know, I started with python, and it wasn't so bad. I had a little help with my first project, and then it was learning whenever I needed to expand.

[trentzb]

If you figure it out on your own imagine how proud you would be to do so without asking for help. I encourage you to try before tossing in the towel. At the least you will have learned some things that may be useful in the future. If you fail to recover it yourself there are folks here willing to help for a fee.

"feed a man fish and he will eat for a night, teach him to fish and he will eat for a lifetime"...or something to that effect

Give it a shot, your incentive is likely greater than someone else doing it for you.

Hint: Search for the specific hex (CTRL-F maybe) Mike indicated and follow his other tips and see what you find

[payb.tc]

No I dont even know what that means. Looking at this text editor and all these rows of numbers and letters its starting to sink in that I might not be able to handle this.

firstly, choose Search->Count... from the main menu

choose "Hex String" and type 04 20 (the space should be inserted automatically, just type 0420).

make sure 'scope' is set to 'Begin'.

click OK

when i do that, i get a count of 684... meaning 684 possible private keys in my wallet.

extracting them manually (copy+paste) would take forever... like, more than a week (a very boring week).

actually, do you need these 600 btc at the moment? if you're a long-term holder it could be worth just starting a new wallet and keeping this 'bad' wallet in a safe place for a while in the hope that easier, user-friendly tools to fix it emerge later.

[NINJA--]

Message I get when I search 0420. Scope is set to begin.

[payb.tc]

Message I get when I search 0420. Scope is set to begin.

damn.

are you sure you were searching as a hex string, and not searching for '0420' as text?

[NINJA--]

The hex box is checked.

[payb.tc]

Positive the hex box is checked.

damn.

sorry i don't think i can help further.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Is your wallet encrypted?  Is so hex editor is useless.   You need to decrypt the wallet first (which may not be possible if it is corrupt).

[NINJA--]

Nope I never knew I could encrypt it.

[casascius]

I'm around if you would have me look. Not finding 0420 with a hex editor is a bad sign though.

[NINJA--]

How did you get VIP under your name? Did you put that there or was that earned from staff? Dont really matter but I am a little curious. Your the only one I see with it.

[Maged]

How did you get VIP under your name? Did you put that there or was that earned from staff? Dont really matter but I am a little curious. Your the only one I see with it.

He got it by donating 50 bitcoins to the forum.

As for this issue, have you tried pywallet?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.0
If you use it, only try it on a copy of your backup.

If you can access your old drive, try this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25091.0

[casascius]

How did you get VIP under your name? Did you put that there or was that earned from staff? Dont really matter but I am a little curious. Your the only one I see with it.

I donated for it on the first day or two it came out, and it's because I wanted a spot to put my real name.

Look to others to vouch for whether I'd scam you.  If I recover anything, I don't even expect a fee.  Just rate me on #bitcoin-otc if you are able.

Also:

- if I were to scam you, others, given your wallet file, could determine that funds were recently taken.
- if your wallet were empty or worthless, others could confirm that, given the same file.

Yeah, I understand... sending your wallet to a complete stranger is a bad idea and is the last thing you want to do.  If nothing else, I'm a person whose real life identity is known and with an established reputation worth more than 600 BTC.  Your call of course.... but on the other hand, if you don't have 0420 anywhere in your file, chances are I might end up announcing you sent me a file full of null bytes, and will post a hash to the forum so you can confirm that with others...

(I suppose it's amusing I can use the number 0420 and hash in the same sentence, and be talking about computers, when normally it would sound like I'm talking about drugs)

[NINJA--]

Cool nice to know. Ive seen some people say white listed and I think Ive seen a few other titles. It did catch my eye so I figured I would ask. I also noticed staff vouching for you. Its just so hard to give you my wallet.dat. But to be honest it doesnt seem like I have many options. I did noticed that pywallet thread. I skimmed through it and book marked it but I haven't played with it yet. Is there anything worth trying before I send off my wallet?

[casascius]

Cool nice to know. Ive seen some people say white listed and I think Ive seen a few other titles. It did catch my eye so I figured I would ask. I also noticed staff vouching for you. Its just so hard to give you my wallet.dat. But to be honest it doesnt seem like I have many options. I did noticed that pywallet thread. I skimmed through it and book marked it but I haven't played with it yet. Is there anything worth trying before I send off my wallet?

If I determine your wallet.dat is junk, the only next thing worth trying would be to scan your entire disk using that utility I linked to.  But you installed an OS over top of it, so even then, your odds aren't that great.  You will at least know what to do next...

given your wallet.dat I will tell you one of two things:
"it's full of 0420's, you must have made a mistake and didn't find them, I recovered your BTC, what's your address"... I'll send you all your BTC, and then you can send the file to others to confirm I sent them all to you... (once the btc are sent to another wallet, the old wallet is of no value to anybody else)

or else

"this doesn't look like a valid wallet.dat, instead I see _______", and I'll invite you to send it to others to confirm that, because at that point you really have nothing to lose.

[NINJA--]

As much as I want to keep playing with it I know Im in over my head so Im gonna send it to you and hope for the best.