HELP! i lost my wallet using system restore!

[kentrolla]

I know im a retard, i didnt back up my wallet.  what happened was i had a user profile that was corrupted so i made a new user and deleted my corrupted user profile.  then i realized that i didnt have bitcoin anymore so i did a system restore and my bitcoin wallet was empty with a different address!  is there any possible way to recover my wallet?

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[rjk]

I know im a retard, i didnt back up my wallet.  what happened was i had a user profile that was corrupted so i made a new user and deleted my corrupted user profile.  then i realized that i didnt have bitcoin anymore so i did a system restore and my bitcoin wallet was empty with a different address!  is there any possible way to recover my wallet?

Probably wasn't caused directly by system restore, but by deleting the profile. Wallet.dat is stored in %appdata%\Bitcoin in the specific user profile on windows.

[Hawkix]

User Casascius has some experience with finding the wallet through disk sectors. I would recommend to stop using that filesystem ASAP and contact him to help you.

[kentrolla]

so i restored my computer to the 1/26/2012 before i made any changes to user profiles. and my wallet is still empty with a different bitcoin address.  I found the wallet.dat file in %appdata%\bitcoin  but it says it was created an hour ago.  so that might be the wrong wallet.dat???  

[kentrolla]

also, when i do system restore it says my documents have not been affected... how do you do system restore and make it so your documents get changed?? i found out that the wallet.dat file i found is not the one im looking for, it was just generated when i ran bitcoin.exe

[memvola]

I'm not familiar with Windows, and don't know what a system restore means, but you shouldn't be running anything on that system. If your wallet file is really deleted, every change has the risk of destroying data that might be recoverable.

Boot up with a live linux CD, mount the drive in read-only mode. Search for files named 'wallet.dat'. If it's not backed up or otherwise placed in another user directory, you'll need to look for it in the raw device. There are wallet recovery tools that can help you with that. They might even recover single keys from a partly overwritten wallet file.

[2_Thumbs_Up]

so i restored my computer to the 1/26/2012 before i made any changes to user profiles. and my wallet is still empty with a different bitcoin address.  I found the wallet.dat file in %appdata%\bitcoin  but it says it was created an hour ago.  so that might be the wrong wallet.dat???  

Yes it's the wrong wallet. Stop using that computer now! Get online from another computer and let someone more experienced help you with this.

[kentrolla]

oh well. its long and gone by now I tried like 5 different restore points lol. I didn't think about how that would kill my chance of recovering it. thanks for the help.  GRRRRRRRRRRRRR
250 bitcoins lost BUY BUY BUY! lol

[Hawkix]

I would not give up on 250 BTC. May buy you a house in future. Ask professional to help you.

[paraipan]

oh well. its long and gone by now I tried like 5 different restore points lol. I didn't think about how that would kill my chance of recovering it. thanks for the help.  GRRRRRRRRRRRRR
250 bitcoins lost BUY BUY BUY! lol

system restore should have your wallet, try one thing, you don't have anything more to lose anyways, find the bitcoin folder that contains your wallet and the blockchain and simply delete any wallet.dat file there. Make sure you close the Bitcoin program first if you have it running. Then make a system restore from the date before you deleted the account. If that doesn't work only a low level scan on that hdd could tell if the coins are lost forever. Hope your new account has the same username, just in case.

[kentrolla]

yea the title of the post is misleading. it wasn't system restore that made me lose my wallet. it was deleting my user profile. I completely forgot about my bitcoin wallet when i did this.  grrrr im so dumb. i will be backing up my wallet in the future for sure.

[memvola]

yea the title of the post is misleading. it wasn't system restore that made me lose my wallet. it was deleting my user profile. I completely forgot about my bitcoin wallet when i did this.  grrrr im so dumb. i will be backing up my wallet in the future for sure.

All the cautions against resuming write access to that drive aside, from what I understand, you should be able to restore that particular user's profile, no? Don't give up.

If you're lazy enough not to try the recovery tool from a live linux CD, you can at least search the drive, including the backups, for the wallet file. Someone correct me on this but the first 32 bytes should match.

[farfiman]

If there are really 250btc in that wallet, then i would try lots of things
1st - . stop using that drive - !
2nd - put in a different system and use recovery software. there are plenty about to try.

[paraipan]

If there are really 250btc in that wallet, then i would try lots of things
1st - . stop using that drive - !
2nd - put in a different system and use recovery software. there are plenty about to try.

+1 some one would gladly do the job of recovering those coins for a reasonable reward

[bitcoinbetas]

If there are really 250btc in that wallet, then i would try lots of things
1st - . stop using that drive - !
2nd - put in a different system and use recovery software. there are plenty about to try.

+1 some one would gladly do the job of recovering those coins for a reasonable reward

agree with this ^^  & ouch! 

[Revalin]

Windows also keeps previous versions of documents if the feature is turned on. Even if it wasn't the blocks where your wallet was stored may not be overwritten yet. Stop using your computer and run cassacius's recovery tool.  If they're anywhere to be found it's your best bet.

[kais3r]

I know im a retard, i didnt back up my wallet.  what happened was i had a user profile that was corrupted so i made a new user and deleted my corrupted user profile.  then i realized that i didnt have bitcoin anymore so i did a system restore and my bitcoin wallet was empty with a different address!  is there any possible way to recover my wallet?

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS USE A BACKUP!

[Littleshop]

I would do a data recovery attempt for you.  The most important part, as others have said, is to STOP using the computer right away.  Each new  bit of data or even system restore attempt could wipe out your wallet from the hard drive.  Even after you deleted the profile, the data was on the hard drive,  windows just didn't know about it anymore.  The odds are 50/50 it is still there. 

I would do the attempt for some of the recovered coins, with no charge if no recovery.

[2_Thumbs_Up]

oh well. its long and gone by now I tried like 5 different restore points lol. I didn't think about how that would kill my chance of recovering it. thanks for the help.  GRRRRRRRRRRRRR
250 bitcoins lost BUY BUY BUY! lol

Seriously, listen to the people here who try to help you. There are tools to restore files that have been deleted. Even if the file is deleted the data remains on your hard drive until it's overwritten. So STOP using windows restore and turn of the computer and let someone who knows what they are doing help you. Everything you do right now only diminishes your chances of retrieving your coins.

[gmaxwell]

I know im a retard, i didnt back up my wallet.  what happened was i had a user profile that was corrupted so i

For whatever it's worth. You are not an idiot. We all make mistakes like this from time to time— though fortunately most of the time we're lucky to escape without any real consequences.  Looks like you were not.

In the future the software will hopefully make these mistakes harder, and awareness from your post may help other people avoid the similar mistakes too.

I hope you're able to get it back with the recovery tools— it's happened before so there is still hope.

[MrWizard]

Have you looked in the recycle bin for your old profile?

[ram1]

I don't know which version of Windows you are running, but if it happens to be Windows 7, user files on the primary disk partition are automatically backed up (if the default hasn't been changed) and perhaps your wallet could be restored:

"Windows 7 and certain editions of Windows Vista come with an automatic file and folder backup feature called “Previous Versions” that many PC users don’t seem to know about. Individual data file and folder backups are created by System Restore or by Windows Backup. With the default setting for System Restore, this means monitored files are backed up once a day. To be more precise, records called “shadow copies” are created. These keep track of any changes that have occurred for files and folders.

These shadow copies can’t be accessed directly. To see the previous versions of a file or folder, right-click the object and choose “Restore Previous Versions” from the context menu.  A dialog listing the previous versions will then open. An example for a folder called “PDFs” is shown in the figure below. Only dates when the file or folder had changes will be shown. There are three buttons that allow for various operations with a selected previous version. Clicking the button "Open" will display a selected entry. Clicking "Copy" will allow you to create a copy of a particular version and save it in a different location. Clicking "Restore" will replace the present file or folder contents with those of the selected version."

note:  if the file to be restored is missing and you know the name and location, it is possible to create a dummy file in the same location with the correct name, then right click on it, and choose "Restore Previous Versions".  If there are previous versions saved, one can be selected for restoration.

I didn't know about this until I read it in a Windows newsletter article. 

[GideonGono]

Stop wasting time and use those recovery tools asap! Also, be careful with other people helping you with recovering the wallet, not that I'm calling anyone one out but we've had more than enough scammers around here.

[jake262144]

I back up wallets with 2 Bitcoins on it... and I am a lazy guy. I don't understand you guys that have fairly large wallets and don't make a backup of one freaking file! Of course, I bet you do from now on. I guess some people just have to learn the hard way.  

I couldn't agree more. You never bothered to drag a file worth 1500$ over to your flash drive? Sounds like you need to be lashed into shape, soldier...

Was that wallet encrypted? If it wasn't you may use a whole range of tools including hex editors and data carving tools. If it was, the hex editors will be of no avail.
Also, before you actually do anything with that drive, it would be prudent to make a perfect bit-by-bit image of your Windows partition on another drive and carve data off that image.
Do the words "Linux", "dd" and "foremost" ring a bell?