Some question,
1. By "just a raw read error", do you mean windows recognize your HDD as RAW (rather than NTFS/FAT)?
2. Is it fell when it's connected to computer and wallet.dat opened by Bitcoin Core? If yes, then it's possible the wallet.dat got corrupted.
Anyway, you should make a RAW copy (also called full disk clone) before doing anything else.
Topic: old harddrive fell to the floor recuva finds bitcoin files from 2011/2013 (Read 164 times)
March 24, 2021, 06:36:13 AM
March 24, 2021, 05:17:33 AM
a wallet.dat file so i recovered it but electrum can't open it which means it is likely corrupted but i tried to open it here and got both private keys and a private adresses https://privatekeys.pw/wallet-parser/bitcoin/
First of all, keep several copies of these wallet.dat files and stop using that hard drive.
Transfer them to another computer, download Bitcoin core* wallet and try to extract the private key from that wallet, and then you can use electrum wallet to spend that money.
Are you sure you have the Bitcoin in those files? Do you remember the passwords?
* From bitcoin core click on Help ---> Debug ----> Console tab ---> Type "dumpwallet"
March 24, 2021, 01:30:10 AM
one of my really old drives fell to the floor i am not sure if it broke as it works fine with just a raw read error but recuva found 100 000 files in including bitcoin files and a wallet.dat file so i recovered it but electrum can't open it which means it is likely corrupted but i tried to open it here and got both private keys and a private adresses https://privatekeys.pw/wallet-parser/bitcoin/
so to be sure if the file was corrupted it wouldn't actually show these? as i don't want to lose sleep over this.
It worked in that site so the file shouldn't be corrupted, you'll get an "error parsing wallet" message or similar if it's corrupted.so to be sure if the file was corrupted it wouldn't actually show these? as i don't want to lose sleep over this.
I advice you to send the balance in case there's any or you may lose your funds (even the site has that warning).
Problem is you've opened it in Electrum which wallet file format has no extension, just create a copy of the original wallet.dat (not the one opened by Electrum) and open that copy in Bitcoin core.
March 23, 2021, 01:46:39 PM
If you have not deleted your wallet.dat files, then you don't need to run a Recuva scan in the first place. They are accessible from a hidden directory called C:\Users\yourself\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin\wallets.
Note: replace "yourself" with your Windows username.
If you have deleted some files, I suggest before doing anything else make a full disk clone using some Windows tool like Acronis. The last thing you want to do is accidentally overwrite the empty space where the wallet files used to be.
Wallet.dat is the Bitcoin Core file format for wallets, you need to use that to open them. From the command prompt or from the Properties of the shortcut on your desktop you should also pass the -salvagewallet option, this will attempt to recover only the private keys in the wallet so you can import them somewhere else.
You may also need to pass the -rescan option to properly see the transactions in the wallet.
Note: replace "yourself" with your Windows username.
If you have deleted some files, I suggest before doing anything else make a full disk clone using some Windows tool like Acronis. The last thing you want to do is accidentally overwrite the empty space where the wallet files used to be.
Wallet.dat is the Bitcoin Core file format for wallets, you need to use that to open them. From the command prompt or from the Properties of the shortcut on your desktop you should also pass the -salvagewallet option, this will attempt to recover only the private keys in the wallet so you can import them somewhere else.
You may also need to pass the -rescan option to properly see the transactions in the wallet.
March 23, 2021, 01:28:11 PM
one of my really old drives fell to the floor i am not sure if it broke as it works fine with just a raw read error but recuva found 100 000 files in including bitcoin files and a wallet.dat file so i recovered it but electrum can't open it which means it is likely corrupted but i tried to open it here and got both private keys and a private adresses https://privatekeys.pw/wallet-parser/bitcoin/
so to be sure if the file was corrupted it wouldn't actually show these? as i don't want to lose sleep over this.
so to be sure if the file was corrupted it wouldn't actually show these? as i don't want to lose sleep over this.
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