His case calls for honesty over optimism. Five years ago, when he attempted to transfer part of a bitcoin from an exchange to a wallet, the computer was reset halfway through setting up, therefore "we didn't get any wallet.dat files." Although the coins "can be seen at the public address", having "trauled the hard drive" they found that there was nothing within the wallet files, and they can send either the original hard drive or a copy. The entire determination of this will depend upon whether a wallet.dat containing the correct keys was ever created and saved prior to the reset, and to be frank, the likelihood is low, since a wallet which is interrupted while being set up may never have created such a file at all.
| Media | Hard drive (or a copy) from a computer reset during a bitcoin wallet's initial setup — no wallet.dat found; coins visible at the public address but the private keys sought. |
| Reported situation | Bitcoin sent from an exchange to a wallet five years ago · computer reset mid-setup while the wallet software was still initialising · no wallet.dat file obtained · coins visible at the public address on the blockchain · owner's own search of the drive finding nothing · drive or image available. |
| Fault class | Sought recovery of a wallet key file that may never have been created — the question being whether a wallet.dat was written before the reset and survives as a deleted remnant, not a drive fault; honest assessment central. |
| Equipment used | Drive or image examined under a hardware write-blocker, all work read-only · a thorough search for wallet.dat and its remnants in R-Studio — deleted files, unallocated space, and file carving by the wallet format's signature · any partial or overwritten wallet structures assessed for usable key material · an honest report of whether recoverable key data exists, with no assurance of coins where the file was never written. |
The most important question is if the wallet file (wallet.dat) was created at all, and honesty begins with the answer to that. A wallet.dat contains the private keys which control the coins, and a wallet.dat is created by the wallet software during setup. If the computer was reset while the wallet was still initialising, before the creation and write of the wallet.dat file, there might be no file to recover, since it was never created. He states his reset occurred while in the process of setting up the wallet. That's exactly why this is the central uncertainty, and why the honest likelihood of recovery is low instead of high.
The fact that the coins can be seen at the public address doesn't prove anything about whether or not the private keys are located on the drive. It merely proves that the transaction has made its way into the blockchain; however, a blockchain represents balances rather than keys. In order to spend the coins, you need access to the private keys, which are contained in the wallet.dat file, and these will only be located on the drive if the file was created and written onto the drive. Seeing the coins on the chain and having the keys to move them are entirely separate things, and it's important that he understands the difference.
Recovery can search for the file, but it cannot conjure keys that were never written. What a laboratory can accomplish is to thoroughly search the drive for a wallet.dat (as a deleted file, in unallocated space, or carved by its signature) much more rigorously than you would manually searching. What the lab will not be able to do is recover a file that has never been created on the drive, or generate the private keys independently. The honest boundary is clear: we recover files that exist on the drive; we do not produce keys the software never wrote.
The realistic view is explained clearly with no misleading optimism. If the wallet.dat had been created prior to the reset and remains intact on the hard drive, a thorough search can find it and recover the key(s) in association with the wallet.dat. In the event the reset occurred before the creation of the wallet.dat (the more likely case here, given the timing), there is nothing to recover, so regardless of what techniques are used this is still the same outcome. Which is true will be determined through the search, and communicated honestly, without any promise or guarantee that coins will be recovered where the wallet.dat may never actually have existed.
The drive or image was examined under a hardware write-blocker, all work read-only. A thorough search for wallet.dat and its remnants was run in R-Studio — deleted files, unallocated space, and file carving by the wallet format's signature — and any partial or overwritten wallet structures assessed for usable key material. An honest report was given of whether recoverable key data existed, with no assurance of coins where the file was never written.
A full forensic search for the wallet file and its remnants, and an honest report as to whether any usable key data survives. The diagnostic costs nothing, takes no more than two working days after receipt, and the quote is one fixed written figure with VAT already in it; if we can't bring back your data then there's no charge. The decode: it turns on whether or not a wallet.dat file was ever written prior to the reset, and if the setup process was halted first, there simply may not be a file to find. Coins on the chain aren't keys on the drive. While we search thoroughly for the file, we cannot conjure keys that were never created by the software itself.
Understand the honest limit of what you are really looking at. Recovery searches for a wallet file that actually does exist on the drive: it cannot make up (create) private keys the software never made (wrote), and while coins are visible on the blockchain, they do not represent keys residing on your disk. If your wallet was interrupted while it was being set up, the wallet.dat file may never have existed. To avoid any previously deleted wallet file being overwritten, stop using the drive. Be very cautious about trusting companies claiming to "recover" lost coins, as opposed to recovering your lost files. A thorough forensic search would be a worthwhile effort; however, expect a truthful answer, which may be that there's nothing to find.
Our case files are written up from genuine enquiries our lab has handled for customers across Swansea and South Wales, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery approach our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.
Diagnostic provided at no charge. Fixed quote. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Start now or call the freephone.