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Bitcoin_Mafia_Me (OP)
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June 12, 2014, 01:43:56 AM |
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Long story short, my laptop got a virus and after removing it I had to do a system restore. Because I didn't have my backups stored externally, when I rebooted after the restore ALL of my wallet.dat files were gone. Possibly unrecoverable. Details here: http://bitcoinmafia.com/bittys-blog/backup-wallets-cautionary-tale/Newbies - don't make my mistake. Backup your wallet.dat files on a flash drive. Just having them on your hard drive is NOT enough. Cheers, Cynthia |
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RainMan28
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Activity: 89
Merit: 10
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June 12, 2014, 01:47:50 AM |
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Thanks for the always timely and important reminder! Just backed up my desktop wallet to an external drive after reading this.
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BTC: 18BEi5vPrPPYETiQt5eG9Sjjyt9DHorfYq
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master-P
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June 12, 2014, 02:20:29 AM |
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You may still be able to recover your wallet.dat file if it hasn't gotten overwritten.
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trand
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Streamity Decentralized cryptocurrency exchange
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June 12, 2014, 02:48:01 AM |
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could we restore bitcoin balance use backup file if we hacked?
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master-P
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June 12, 2014, 04:18:02 AM
Last edit: June 12, 2014, 09:21:01 PM by master-P |
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could we restore bitcoin balance use backup file if we hacked?
You can restore the backup as long as you control the private key for the address. If a hacker sends the coins to another address that you don't have the private key for, then your BTC is gone. Best thing to do is store your coins offline on a few USB drives or paper wallets. |
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Light
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June 12, 2014, 04:57:26 AM |
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If you haven't formatted the drive there is a chance that some of the data has not been deleted and hence is recoverable. Have you tried to recover the files yet? Depending on how much you lost, you could consider sending it to a professional data recovery service (but only if your wallet has been encrypted) which would set you back quite a bit but would be worth it if you had a lot.
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RainMan28
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June 12, 2014, 04:59:10 AM |
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If you haven't formatted the drive there is a chance that some of the data has not been deleted and hence is recoverable. Have you tried to recover the files yet? Depending on how much you lost, you could consider sending it to a professional data recovery service (but only if your wallet has been encrypted) which would set you back quite a bit but would be worth it if you had a lot.
Even if her wallet wasn't encrypted, it would make sense to send it to a data recovery service. If anyone was to transfer the bitcoins away to a different address (i.e. a rogue employee at the data recovery company) it would be obvious from the blockchain and they could go after them legally. |
BTC: 18BEi5vPrPPYETiQt5eG9Sjjyt9DHorfYq
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Pkofet
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June 12, 2014, 08:21:50 AM |
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Newbies - don't make my mistake. Backup your wallet.dat files on a flash drive. Just having them on your hard drive
is NOT enough.
Agree. I currently have 3 backups other than the main file on my pc, one on dropbox, one on USB, one on laptop. And all 3 backups are encrypted with a 20-character long password with 7zip. |
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notluf314
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June 12, 2014, 07:12:07 PM |
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you should also regularly sweep for malware and key loggers, once had my blackcoin stolen out of my wallet from another computer when left open for staking
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Relnarien
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June 13, 2014, 12:23:34 AM |
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If you haven't formatted the drive there is a chance that some of the data has not been deleted and hence is recoverable. Have you tried to recover the files yet? Depending on how much you lost, you could consider sending it to a professional data recovery service (but only if your wallet has been encrypted) which would set you back quite a bit but would be worth it if you had a lot.
Even if her wallet wasn't encrypted, it would make sense to send it to a data recovery service. If anyone was to transfer the bitcoins away to a different address (i.e. a rogue employee at the data recovery company) it would be obvious from the blockchain and they could go after them legally. If a malicious entity recovers the data and gains control of the private keys in the OP's wallet, then all that entity has to do is wait until the drive is returned to the owner before emptying the wallet. Legally, the company could claim that the OP transferred it to another wallet on his/her own. The IP address of the source of a transaction can easily be masked. Even if it wasn't, the transaction itself can be made from an online wallet connected to a public Wifi or by a third party entity not directly connected to but colluding with the malicious entity. The recipient address can be generated on a permanently offline wallet. The stolen funds can be kept in cold storage for a couple of years and later washed. Since these actions can be done by practically anyone without leaving any direct proof, the OP would have to find definitive proof that the malicious entity did any of it and that he/she himself/herself didn't. Unless the aforementioned wallet held tens of thousands of USD worth of BTC, then taking legal action would not be worth it financially. Legally, the OP would be liable for fraud if the suit backfires. |
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joshraban76
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June 13, 2014, 12:26:33 AM |
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I'm sorry for your loss.
And I always encourage even more than 1 backup, as lets say you put the wallet file in a flash and the flash was robbed or something.
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_AEGIS_
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June 13, 2014, 07:16:12 PM |
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How terrible, its a good to back up wallets to flash drives but they can have read errors...
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BTC_Fundamentals
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Merit: 10
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June 14, 2014, 04:33:16 PM |
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If you haven't formatted the drive there is a chance that some of the data has not been deleted and hence is recoverable. Have you tried to recover the files yet? Depending on how much you lost, you could consider sending it to a professional data recovery service (but only if your wallet has been encrypted) which would set you back quite a bit but would be worth it if you had a lot.
Yes, this option is well known when yu need something to recover. You can try to use get data back for NTFS for those purposes. |
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ShakyhandsBTCer
Sr. Member
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Activity: 448
Merit: 250
It's Money 2.0| It’s gold for nerds | It's Bitcoin
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June 16, 2014, 01:02:06 AM |
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My advice to you is to not touch your computer starting now.
You can visit a Best Buy or other computer store and they may be abel to recover your wallet.dat file
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ezimedia
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June 16, 2014, 03:45:00 AM |
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Always back up all my wallet.dat files and also the total blockchain that wallet has download... do want to download gigs of data over 10's of wallets.. I store everything on 2 ext hdd
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Lieji
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June 16, 2014, 08:03:40 AM |
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How terrible, its a good to back up wallets to flash drives but they can have read errors...
True, but that's why you should make multiple backups and store them in multiple devices.  |
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ajareselde
Legendary
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Merit: 1000
Satoshi is rolling in his grave. #bitcoin
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June 16, 2014, 12:31:22 PM |
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In the early days of bitcoin mining, i actualy backed up wallet.h from bitcoin folder.
60+ BTC went poof. i learned lession the hard way also, wasnt worth much back then , but now...
Too bad none of those date restore programs could recover the real wallet.dat on hdd, coz it was overwritten by other files.
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bitsmichel
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June 16, 2014, 12:52:12 PM |
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In the early days of bitcoin mining, i actualy backed up wallet.h from bitcoin folder.
60+ BTC went poof. i learned lession the hard way also, wasnt worth much back then , but now...
Too bad none of those date restore programs could recover the real wallet.dat on hdd, coz it was overwritten by other files.
the header file? for newbies, backup the whole bitcoin directory - or better yet- backup your entire disk. |
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keyscore44
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Activity: 2002
Merit: 1016
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June 16, 2014, 01:01:15 PM |
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That sucks dude, when people back up their wallets to a memory card/USB stick etc do they just copy the wallet dat file?
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Divorcion
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June 16, 2014, 01:53:56 PM |
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Hi all Not good but if your wallets are worth it, you can as already suggested send your hd to a recovery service, maybe you have luck. I think i should make some backups right now better later then too late. I plan to only copy the wallet.dat, this should be enough right? And must i use the backup function in the wallet or is to copy the *.dat enough? thanks |
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