Topic: Original Faucet Bitcoin Files Help Request (Read 89 times)
If i remember correctly, from the "olden" days i used to dissect the original bitcoin files, .dat file was what you needed. It contained your wallet info, and you could just move that to another computer and still contain your wallet.
You obviously haven't figured out what the OP is asking here. Of course, you can go to the faucet right now and get from 1 to 100 satoshis, but OP wants to restore the data on the laptop in order to receive the bitcoins received in 2011. I can't tell you exactly how much the faucet gave out in 2011/12, but in 2010, the Bitcoin Faucet website distributed 5 BTC each.
It is a first Bitcoin faucet from one of first Bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen.http://web.archive.org/web/20100703032414/http://freebitcoins.appspot.com/
Announcement thread.
Get 5 free bitcoins from freebitcoins.appspot.com
Back in years like 2011, Gavin Andresen was one of active administrators of Bitcoin forum.
Bitcointalk's important historic changes
For recovery, let's try.
[Overview] Recover Bitcoin from any old storage format
If the challenge here is to have a means of making recovery of the past mistake i did for deleting the faucet file, then am not going to mind the whole recovery issues when i can still engage another one from different platform that offers that for free or after performing some certain task for them, faucet is not what we have to worry much about, since there are still any other platforms where we can hunt after getting them again.
You obviously haven't figured out what the OP is asking here. Of course, you can go to the faucet right now and get from 1 to 100 satoshis, but OP wants to restore the data on the laptop in order to receive the bitcoins received in 2011. I can't tell you exactly how much the faucet gave out in 2011/12, but in 2010, the Bitcoin Faucet website distributed 5 BTC each.
2) EXACTLY what file type/s am I hunting for?
iirc it was .dat files and .txt files? Please set me right on that one.
iirc it was .dat files and .txt files? Please set me right on that one.
The most common Bitcoin wallet file types from that era (you mentioned 2011-12) are following;
wallet.dat: This primary wallet file contains private keys.
*.wallet: Older versions of Bitcoin Core sometimes used this extension.
*.txt: Some early wallets might have stored keys in plain text files (highly insecure but possible).
Create and save a full forensic bit-by-bit image copy of your drive. This is your forensic main image copy. You don't work on this main copy and you should've at least another copy of it on a different device. The goal is to never loose this forensic main copy!
Excellent suggestion. 
If the challenge here is to have a means of making recovery of the past mistake i did for deleting the faucet file, then am not going to mind the whole recovery issues when i can still engage another one from different platform that offers that for free or after performing some certain task for them, faucet is not what we have to worry much about, since there are still any other platforms where we can hunt after getting them again.
I can't say much about good tools to recover deleted files. I have backups and I think a good backup regime. If I accidently delete a file, I restore it from backups.
But chances to recover deleted data from harddisk drives are very much dependant on how long after the deletion the drives was still used and how much more data has been written to it.
I can say that it is possible to recover the files when the harddisk drives isn't used after the file is deleted because if it is then the chance of recovering the files will become low. Having backups would be best thing to do as you won't have to recover it at all since you can just restore it from the backups. I don't know if op will tell if the drive isn't used for quite some time after the file is deleted because if it is used then as you have said the longer it is used then the more data will be written to it. But chances to recover deleted data from harddisk drives are very much dependant on how long after the deletion the drives was still used and how much more data has been written to it.
You have separate problems. I'll share my thoughts on them also separately, but some parts need to be seen combined.
First issue: your storage device seems to have problems
I don't know what you mean by "might be an arm prob". What do you want to open and flip?
So the drive tries to spin-up and aborts this after little time?
This issue is a difficult part, because it can be challenging to bring the drive back to life, if that's even possible for a normal user. Unless you can bring the drive to a state to fully read its content, there's not much else you can do. Beware that any actions can damage your drive further.
Professional data recovery from a failing drive is possible but can be costly. You should know in advance if it's worth the expenses. And to me, you don't sound like you know what you possible could've deleted from your drive. This is not much to be honest.
Do you even remember how much coins you possibly received from some early Bitcoin faucet? Speculation might not be enough to justify costly data recovery and drive repair.
In very early times and IIRC e.g. gmaxwell operated a Bitcoin faucet where he gave away 5BTC but that was in very early days of Bitcoin (don't remember when it was actually, but Bitcoin wasn't worth much back then).
Second issue: deleted files and their recovery
Let's assume you're able to spin-up and read from the drive. You want to avoid at all cost to write again some data to your drive, that's top priority. Mount the drive and filesystems on it only read-only! I assume the data on the drive has enough value to justify below actions.
Create and save a full forensic bit-by-bit image copy of your drive. This is your forensic main image copy. You don't work on this main copy and you should've at least another copy of it on a different device. The goal is to never loose this forensic main copy!
Ideally you have three copies of your forensic image copy. Two on two different storage devices are never touched and serve as your fallback backup. From the third you create work copies and do the file recovery only on the work copies until you succeed.
This may seem a lot of storage media needed and a lot of forensic image copies, but trust me, it's needed if you want to avoid to loose any data. You may have only one chance to make a full forensic image copy of your original drive OR you got a forensic image copy of your drive's content from a professional data recovery company who is specialized to repair and recover data from failing storage devices.
I can't say much about good tools to recover deleted files. I have backups and I think a good backup regime. If I accidently delete a file, I restore it from backups.
But chances to recover deleted data from harddisk drives are very much dependant on how long after the deletion the drives was still used and how much more data has been written to it.
First issue: your storage device seems to have problems
I don't know what you mean by "might be an arm prob". What do you want to open and flip?
So the drive tries to spin-up and aborts this after little time?
This issue is a difficult part, because it can be challenging to bring the drive back to life, if that's even possible for a normal user. Unless you can bring the drive to a state to fully read its content, there's not much else you can do. Beware that any actions can damage your drive further.
Professional data recovery from a failing drive is possible but can be costly. You should know in advance if it's worth the expenses. And to me, you don't sound like you know what you possible could've deleted from your drive. This is not much to be honest.
Do you even remember how much coins you possibly received from some early Bitcoin faucet? Speculation might not be enough to justify costly data recovery and drive repair.
In very early times and IIRC e.g. gmaxwell operated a Bitcoin faucet where he gave away 5BTC but that was in very early days of Bitcoin (don't remember when it was actually, but Bitcoin wasn't worth much back then).
Second issue: deleted files and their recovery
Let's assume you're able to spin-up and read from the drive. You want to avoid at all cost to write again some data to your drive, that's top priority. Mount the drive and filesystems on it only read-only! I assume the data on the drive has enough value to justify below actions.
Create and save a full forensic bit-by-bit image copy of your drive. This is your forensic main image copy. You don't work on this main copy and you should've at least another copy of it on a different device. The goal is to never loose this forensic main copy!
Ideally you have three copies of your forensic image copy. Two on two different storage devices are never touched and serve as your fallback backup. From the third you create work copies and do the file recovery only on the work copies until you succeed.
This may seem a lot of storage media needed and a lot of forensic image copies, but trust me, it's needed if you want to avoid to loose any data. You may have only one chance to make a full forensic image copy of your original drive OR you got a forensic image copy of your drive's content from a professional data recovery company who is specialized to repair and recover data from failing storage devices.
I can't say much about good tools to recover deleted files. I have backups and I think a good backup regime. If I accidently delete a file, I restore it from backups.
But chances to recover deleted data from harddisk drives are very much dependant on how long after the deletion the drives was still used and how much more data has been written to it.
Hello folks.
As per the title - I used the BTC faucet back in the day - circa 2011/12? Had read some article and set it up on my browser.
However, have thought for the past decade or so that the laptop I used then had been canned completely.
Not so. Digging out Xmas decs, my girl finds it.
Now, I remember the accidental deletion of said files I'd kept in a folder, not knowing exactly what it was/what to do with them, and have remarked on it since - a tale of woe I'd bring up from time to time.
So I have questions I really need some experienced help on:
1) If I can get the old drive functioning (reason pc was ditched was drive had failed, but might be an arm prob if i can open and flip it; it responds to powering (audibly) up but won't spin up fully),
will recovery software facilitate finding the files?
2) EXACTLY what file type/s am I hunting for?
iirc it was .dat files and .txt files? Please set me right on that one.
3) Should I perform miracles on the hardware, has anyone got preferred recovery software with a good hit rate?
Many Thanks if you can help any. Season's regards.
As per the title - I used the BTC faucet back in the day - circa 2011/12? Had read some article and set it up on my browser.
However, have thought for the past decade or so that the laptop I used then had been canned completely.
Not so. Digging out Xmas decs, my girl finds it.
Now, I remember the accidental deletion of said files I'd kept in a folder, not knowing exactly what it was/what to do with them, and have remarked on it since - a tale of woe I'd bring up from time to time.
So I have questions I really need some experienced help on:
1) If I can get the old drive functioning (reason pc was ditched was drive had failed, but might be an arm prob if i can open and flip it; it responds to powering (audibly) up but won't spin up fully),
will recovery software facilitate finding the files?
2) EXACTLY what file type/s am I hunting for?
iirc it was .dat files and .txt files? Please set me right on that one.
3) Should I perform miracles on the hardware, has anyone got preferred recovery software with a good hit rate?
Many Thanks if you can help any. Season's regards.
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