what to do ? 2.5 BTC lost forever? | Bitcointalksearch.org

LvM

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Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 09:24:29 PM

I've made a transaction, send 1 BTC to adress shown in the screen shot.
I didn't made the second 2.5 transaction, where did my money go?
I have no private key to this second adress where all my spare btc had gone.
After transaction I've deleted wallet.dat becouse I was sure that all my btc are safe at the adress which they have been send to previously.
Does it mean that my btc are lost forever?
I've tried to recover the lost wallet.dat but any of the data recover software can not find it.
Does it mean that when I have cold paper wallet like I did, and want to spend only a bit of it I have to dump another private key after each transaction?
What the hell happened? Am I missing sth? I want my btc back so badly.

Good luck retrieving your wallet!

Next time you better use ARMORY by Alan Reiner (aka etotheipi).

Unlike the main client (Bitcoin-Qt), you only need ONE backup EVER!!.
It doesn't matter how many addresses you use -- they're all derived from the information on that ONE paper backup!

Works also if you forget your passphrase.
Luckily, Armory has the ultimate solution for this: Paper Backups! Use it!

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1614537
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=97.0

lophie

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Thank you for making my coins worth more. I promise you I will not forget you every time I buy expensive stuff that costs exactly 2 BTC Roll Eyes

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Quote from: pajak666 on May 02, 2013, 11:42:53 AM

Quote from: Amitabh S on May 02, 2013, 08:09:34 AM

2. This is the change address, and the current wallet.dat is very old

Might be the issue, I've been using this wallet for like over half year or even more, any solution how to fix it and recover coins?

By recovering your wallet.dat, silly. Roll Eyes

If you can't, you lost it, sorry.

pajak666

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Quote from: Amitabh S on May 02, 2013, 08:09:34 AM

2. This is the change address, and the current wallet.dat is very old
[/quote]

Might be the issue, I've been using this wallet for like over half year or even more, any solution how to fix it and recover coins?

13Charlie

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Quote from: Amitabh S on May 02, 2013, 07:47:56 AM

You should NEVER delete any wallet.dat file. If you feel key is compromised, transfer bitcoins to a new secure address but always keep the wallet files. If in future someone (or you) sends bitcoins to that address you cannot recover them.

+1 - Keep backups of every wallet, forever!
If you accidentally give someone an old address (for any reason) you can still recover your Bitcoin.

Amitabh S

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Quote from: Stephen Gornick on April 29, 2013, 10:12:33 PM

Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 09:54:10 PM

When I import it it's balance and transactions are the same as on this screen shot.

Here's the transaction:
- https://blockchain.info/tx/f0874707164307c074811620d140898a8914c2376dbf6e460dabf488d93c5a15

It doesn't make sense that there are two transactions showing if you only sent the transaction to one address. The Bitcoin-Qt client will send change to another address from your wallet but when it does that it will not show as a separate transaction because it is just change back to yourself. In this instance, it looks like you created a multi-output transaction yourself (e..g, using the "Add Address" button and pasting a second address to send the 2.5 BTC to.) If that wasn't something you had done then I'm stumped as to how this occurred.

I don't use QT anymore so can't be sure. Just speculating. Two possibilities:
1. Somone hacked into his computer and transferred the bitcoins
2. This is the change address, and the current wallet.dat is very old

Amitabh S

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You should NEVER delete any wallet.dat file. If you feel key is compromised, transfer bitcoins to a new secure address but always keep the wallet files. If in future someone (or you) sends bitcoins to that address you cannot recover them.

R2D221

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Quote from: pajak666 on April 30, 2013, 10:39:55 AM

Quote from: Gator-hex on April 30, 2013, 10:08:05 AM

If you just did a normal delete of wallet.dat it should be recoverable from the trash bin, right click, and recover item.

AYFKM?

People are trying to help. It's a possible scenario. If it wasn't what you did, then just say so. No need to get angry.

Felipeo

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Quote from: Gator-hex on April 30, 2013, 10:08:05 AM

If you just did a normal delete of wallet.dat it should be recoverable from the trash bin, right click, and recover item.

simple

Stephen Gornick

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Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 10:35:25 PM

I've never ever in my life used send to many command, even dunno how to type it properly

When Sending using the Bitcoin-QT client there is a green "+" for "Add Recipient" at the bottom. But if that's not what you did then that doesn't explain it.

wachtwoord

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If using the backup wallet does not work follow the steps in this post:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guide-recover-your-deleted-keys-38004

(If you are using windows, boot from a live Linux distro and mount the HD you have windows installed on as the guide says it is untested under Windows).

pajak666

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Quote from: Gator-hex on April 30, 2013, 10:08:05 AM

If you just did a normal delete of wallet.dat it should be recoverable from the trash bin, right click, and recover item.

AYFKM?

Gator-hex

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If you just did a normal delete of wallet.dat it should be recoverable from the trash bin, right click, and recover item.

DannyHamilton

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Quote from: lophie on April 29, 2013, 11:09:37 PM

- snip -

-----> and here where you lost the coins in the unbackuped newely generated change address

- snip -

Perhaps. Perhaps not. The previous backup (created 2 days ago):

Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 10:35:25 PM

- snip -

my wallet.dat was backed up two days earlier, stored in encrypted container on another drive.

- snip-

Should have that address in it. Unless you've changed the configuration, the wallet should have an address pool of the next 100 addresses it will use. That address used for change should have been taken from that pool. This means that the only reason that it should be missing from the backup file would be if more than 100 addresses were used (transactions created) between the backup and the transaction sending to 1Q8tJDZxsiBwNfqkNaCe1GDbKxqtWVCVcx.

If you can't recover the deleted wallet.dat file, you might try running a rescan on the wallet.dat file that the image was captured from

lophie

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Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 10:35:25 PM

I've never ever in my life used send to many command, even dunno how to type it properly
chronological order:
1)I've used importprivkey command for my wallet since my wallet.dat was backed up two days earlier, stored in encrypted container on another drive.
2)I've send 1 BTC to the know adress.
3)shut down bitcoin-qt
4)delete wallet.dat from .../roaming/bitcoin
-----> and here where you lost the coins in the unbackuped newely generated change address
5)import previous (two days earlier backed up) wallet.dat
6)see 0.68 balance and wonder where did 2.5 btc has gone
7)wonder if this can ever happen again?

pajak666

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I've never ever in my life used send to many command, even dunno how to type it properly
chronological order:
1)I've used importprivkey command for my wallet since my wallet.dat was backed up two days earlier, stored in encrypted container on another drive.
2)I've send 1 BTC to the know adress.
3)shut down bitcoin-qt
4)delete wallet.dat from .../roaming/bitcoin
5)import previous (two days earlier backed up) wallet.dat
6)see 0.68 balance and wonder where did 2.5 btc has gone
7)wonder if this can ever happen again?

Stephen Gornick

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Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 09:54:10 PM

When I import it it's balance and transactions are the same as on this screen shot.

Here's the transaction:
- https://blockchain.info/tx/f0874707164307c074811620d140898a8914c2376dbf6e460dabf488d93c5a15

It doesn't make sense that there are two transactions showing if you only sent the transaction to one address. The Bitcoin-Qt client will send change to another address from your wallet but when it does that it will not show as a separate transaction because it is just change back to yourself. In this instance, it looks like you created a multi-output transaction yourself (e..g, using the "Add Address" button and pasting a second address to send the 2.5 BTC to.) If that wasn't something you had done then I'm stumped as to how this occurred.

pajak666

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Quote from: drakahn on April 29, 2013, 09:53:12 PM

Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 09:24:29 PM

...After transaction I've deleted wallet.dat...

Have you tried pywallet's recover function?
before anything else stop using the harddrive that wallet.dat was on, plug it in as a secondary drive on a different computer and then try pywallet

I've also switched wallet.dat since I've deleted it, will it affect pywallet for searching only 1 most recent deleted wallet.dat and not the one I am looking for?

pajak666

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I have backup wallet.dat but it is created 1 or maybe two days prior to this transaction.
Maybe it contains private key to this future use adress also?
When I import it it's balance and transactions are the same as on this screen shot.

drakahn

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Quote from: pajak666 on April 29, 2013, 09:24:29 PM

...After transaction I've deleted wallet.dat...

Have you tried pywallet's recover function?
before anything else stop using the harddrive that wallet.dat was on, plug it in as a secondary drive on a different computer and then try pywallet

DannyHamilton

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When using software in a way it was not intended to be used, and keeping track of your own money, it is important to understand exactly what you are doing, and how it all works beforehand. Otherwise you are likely to lose money.

Whenever you create a new transaction, that wallet creates a brand new address and private key to send the "change" to.

The wallet keeps track of the address and the private key in the wallet.dat file, but does not tell you about either.

If you then delete the wallet.dat file and don't have any backups anywhere, then the bitcoins become permanently lost.

Hopefully you will find a way to retrieve that wallet.dat file.

pajak666

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I've made a transaction, send 1 BTC to adress shown in the screen shot.
I didn't made the second 2.5 transaction, where did my money go?
I have no private key to this second adress where all my spare btc had gone.
After transaction I've deleted wallet.dat becouse I was sure that all my btc are safe at the adress which they have been send to previously.
Does it mean that my btc are lost forever?
I've tried to recover the lost wallet.dat but any of the data recover software can not find it.
Does it mean that when I have cold paper wallet like I did, and want to spend only a bit of it I have to dump another private key after each transaction?
What the hell happened? Am I missing sth? I want my btc back so badly.

Topic: what to do ? 2.5 BTC lost forever? (Read 2812 times)