Mashrock



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NewbieActivity: 47Merit: 0 Formatted computer lost coins? July 05, 2012, 07:40:53 AM #1 I am stupid and forgot about my coins on my computer. i have formatted and now i think my coins are gone? is there any way i can recover my wallet.dat file? if thats the file i am after?



is there any way i can get them back at all? i am using a Mac, with fresh install of osx 10.7

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Hero MemberActivity: 728Merit: 500165YUuQUWhBz3d27iXKxRiazQnjEtJNG9g Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 05, 2012, 08:09:48 AM #2 Yes. TURN THE COMPUTER OFF IMMEDIATELY. Don't shut it down or anything, just pull the plug.



There is a utility that scan scan the whole hard drive for lost wallets. I will get you more info in a moment. War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. --Ambrose Bierce

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Hero MemberActivity: 728Merit: 500165YUuQUWhBz3d27iXKxRiazQnjEtJNG9g Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 05, 2012, 08:21:36 AM #3



You will need to burn a Linux boot disc using another computer. SystemRescueCD is a good choice. Put it in the mac, hold down the C key, power on, then release it when it starts to boot.



The thread has instructions on how to perform the recovery. If you're not familiar with using Linux (let alone the command line) then you'll probably find it a bit confusing. We'll help you through it. Info on recovery utility here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25091.0 You will need to burn a Linux boot disc using another computer. SystemRescueCD is a good choice. Put it in the mac, hold down the C key, power on, then release it when it starts to boot.The thread has instructions on how to perform the recovery. If you're not familiar with using Linux (let alone the command line) then you'll probably find it a bit confusing. We'll help you through it. War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. --Ambrose Bierce

Bitcoin is the Devil's way of teaching geeks economics. --Revalin 165YUuQUWhBz3d27iXKxRiazQnjEtJNG9g

Mashrock



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NewbieActivity: 47Merit: 0 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 05, 2012, 10:42:08 AM #4 I'm sure this will help.



i have the hard drive out of the computer. plugged into a usb adapter and powered on connected to another mac i have..



just reading that thread now cheers.

nayrB16



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MemberActivity: 62Merit: 10I was lucky enough to solve block 121306 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 05, 2012, 01:12:05 PM #5 Goodluck, let me know how it goes. Haha! I'm the only one to control Bitcoin address 1HjtErSHNEHtY347LouvsFq5KesHkEZLAV

Mashrock



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NewbieActivity: 47Merit: 0 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 05, 2012, 11:12:12 PM #6 Still going along with it.... had to use one of my mining rigs, to get it working and in the process now! for about the 3rd time. macbooks dont like to boot from usb with linux no more..



bout 40% the way thru but its still showing no keys found.



the drive was almost at capacity when i formatted it with the bitcoin wallet a new addition (hence why i just forgot about it) all i did was format and install a fresh os on it. so heres hoping that it can be recovered.



i did try a few other disk recovery tools but were all pretty shit.

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LegendaryActivity: 1064Merit: 1000 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 05, 2012, 11:27:15 PM #7



http://partedmagic.com/doku.php



It is free, so it is worth a shot.



There are a few data recovery programs in the distro. In my experience, the best ones are command line based, so be prepared to dive into that dark world

You could try Parted Magic, a cd/usb based Linux distro designed around drive operations/data recovery etc.It is free, so it is worth a shot.There are a few data recovery programs in the distro. In my experience, the best ones are command line based, so be prepared to dive into that dark world

Mashrock



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NewbieActivity: 47Merit: 0 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 06, 2012, 12:13:24 AM

Last edit: July 06, 2012, 12:37:40 AM by Mashrock #8 So i have completed the program linked up above by Revalin but it recovered nothing at all...



am i doomed or what? there is a considerable amount of coins here pretty much all my mining efforts gone..



i do have some of the publc keys i used to transfer the coins to this wallet.

REF



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Hero MemberActivity: 529Merit: 500 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 06, 2012, 01:59:18 AM #9 The coins are gone unless you can get the private keys in the wallet. The public keys are only going to let you know how many coins you have.



I have seen in the past some reputable members try to recover coins for members if you shipped them your hard drive. I guess it would be a bit of a pain because its a mac so unless your comfortable taking it apart to get the HDD you would need to ship the entire unit. It sounds as if that computer is for everyday use too so im not sure if you could do without it. It still may be a better option then losing all your coins. I forget who offered the service in the past. :\

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Hero MemberActivity: 728Merit: 500165YUuQUWhBz3d27iXKxRiazQnjEtJNG9g Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 06, 2012, 03:24:41 AM #10 Was the wallet encrypted? There's a note on that thread that the tool doesn't work with encrypted wallets. If it was using the encrypted format then we may have to modify it a bit. War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. --Ambrose Bierce

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Mashrock



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NewbieActivity: 47Merit: 0 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 06, 2012, 07:02:53 AM #11 I got a few computers, the drives is out and connected up to a linux machine which i ran them programs and found nothing. however using hex editor/search i can find instances of 0420 so maybe all isnt lost. casascius is going to work on it next week for me so with a bit of luck there is something still there.



mac windows etc.. its all the same when your looking at it this way..

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LegendaryActivity: 1512Merit: 1001 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 07, 2012, 02:31:12 PM #13



If you do a quick format, which takes just a few seconds, then the majority of the data areas may still have been intact (until the reinstallation of another OS). If however a full format was done (10 minutes to several hours depending on the drive size and tech), this writes zeroes to all data areas of the hard drive, removing the option of recovery. This depends on how the OSX formatter's (appropriately called "erase disk") security option was set:



The key phrase in the first post is "fresh install", that the OS was reinstalled and used after the formatting too, drastically reducing the chance of recoverable data remaining in unwritten areas.If you do a quick format, which takes just a few seconds, then the majority of the data areas may still have been intact (until the reinstallation of another OS). If however a full format was done (10 minutes to several hours depending on the drive size and tech), this writes zeroes to all data areas of the hard drive, removing the option of recovery. This depends on how the OSX formatter's (appropriately called "erase disk") security option was set:

deus-ex-machina



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Full MemberActivity: 166Merit: 100 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 08, 2012, 05:04:10 PM #14 A piece of advice (this won't help now, but it will later):



When you have a wallet, make physical QR codes of the public addresses AND private keys. Match them as well. Multiple copies of the keys in case one is damaged or lost. Then you can scan the code with your webcam (yes, tools exist that do that) and recover them. This has not been tested on encrypted wallets, but probably won't work on them.

Jutarul

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DonatorLegendaryActivity: 994Merit: 1000 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 08, 2012, 05:54:41 PM #15 to gain a bit more confidence on the restorability of the data you could do a deep scan for each one of the public keys. I appended a bash script which does that for you. You need to modify the pubkey variable and redirect dd to the correct hard disc. the loop assumes that your hard disc is less than 2TB. Also, make sure you have root access to the drive...



If you find one public key on the disc that might be an indication that the restoration tool has failed you but the data is still there.



I don't know how much you know about data restoration but it may pay off to find someone to do it for you.

All depends on trust level and whether the amount is worth it....



good luck!



script:

===

#!/bin/bash



pubkey=1Nn3GoGpWj3UonxUq4VB432T8fxnBmec2b



for i in {0..2000000}; do

dd if=/dev/sda2 of=block.dat bs=1M count=2 skip=$i &>/dev/null

grep $pubkey block.dat &>/dev/null

if [ $? -eq 0 ] ; then

echo "public key found, block $i"

break

fi

done The ASICMINER Project https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99497.0

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Mashrock



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NewbieActivity: 47Merit: 0 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 09, 2012, 05:45:54 AM #17



i know a little about data recovery but have never really dove this far into it before.



i dont think i zero'd out data on the format, just did a quick format.



if this .3 tool fails to recover again i will be talking to cassicaus , and perhaps trying the quick script above.



but in the end if its gone i guess its gone Hey guys thanks for the extra help and advice here, i am just running .3 now after being away all weekend.i know a little about data recovery but have never really dove this far into it before.i dont think i zero'd out data on the format, just did a quick format.if this .3 tool fails to recover again i will be talking to cassicaus , and perhaps trying the quick script above.but in the end if its gone i guess its gone

Mashrock



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NewbieActivity: 47Merit: 0 Re: Formatted computer lost coins? July 09, 2012, 07:34:42 AM #19 Nope i thought i mentioned it wasnt encrypted..



anyway its now done, 110 keys found.. however in ubuntu i am having troubles copying the file that has been made.



it has a lock on it and i cant copy move or anything with this file.



i am using ubuntu desktop off a usb stick so its not installed? i have not created a persistent drive with this install also.. so when i restart the computer i am back to square one..



so i am running this again to get the 110 keys once more and will leave the computer on



can someone help me with this step?? seems to me like file permissions? says its owned by root?