Search content
Sort by
Showing 20 of 85 results by SheriffBass
Re: Py Wallet recover lost/deleted bitcoin wallets Without using a recovery service
-snip- I was wondering if someone had an idiot guide ( my level of idiot!!) or can walk me through the most basic details, or just install it on my new PC for me to use on my own even for a fee.
I'll check if I already posted a guide related to it.For the latter, since you mentioned a fee, you can post a "Buy Service" topic in Services board (link) to find someone reputable who's willing to set it up for you.
Make sure to check the user's "Trust Rating" before allowing them to control your PC or before scheduling a meetup.
And also important, topics in that board is exclusively for those that pay in BTC.
-edit-
I searched, but those threads that I remember are mostly for the commands but don't contain the full setup from Python to Pywallet setup.
You should at least post your PC's OS so if ever, writing a step-by-step guide could be shorter and specific to your case.
Thank you so much for looking into it, I may try this link you sent.
Re: Py Wallet recover lost/deleted bitcoin wallets Without using a recovery service
anyone has/ willing to make a detailed operation tutorial including step by step installing and using Python, Py wallet, dependencies, paths, commands for finding, extracting, dumping wallets & prvkeys.......?
Have you lost your working pywallet setup in 2019?It's been 6years so that must be the case.
Anyways, if you can't find the old post containing the guides by HCP that you've followed, it's still saved in your post history,
Here (actual guide in the posts before this): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5161349.msg52313697#msg52313697
Quote from: SheriffBass
Is PyWallet by Jack-Jack the best way to scan old hard drives to recover lost/ deleted bitcoin wallets Without using a recovery service? any easier windows-based alternatives?
This would have been perfect for you since it's updated with full python3 support: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5547957.0But its dependency "bsddb3" will be more tedious to compile in Windows than the whole setup combined. (plus there's no available guide)
And I can't find any pre-build wheel for non-ARM Windows and python 3.12/3.13 of it.
I gave up as I couldn't quit use the commands back then, that PC is useless now and the program is mostly corrupt/damaged, the current crypto prices ignited me back up again, so I bought a new PC to start fresh but want to do it right this time. as I'm reading about it now there is way too much for me to know about how to download and operate both Python and PYwallet (which I don't) from how to download python to operate for all users as an admin, to dependencies, paths, virtual environment, all programs even found wallets have to be downloaded/ saved in the same directory, having to specify the name/path to each wallet to dump keys..... it may come natural to you but certainly all overwhelming to me ( I don't even know what a wheel or non-arm windows are!).....so since I don't want to do the trial-and-error thing again, I was wondering if someone had an idiot guide or can walk me through, or just install it on my new PC for me to use on my own even for a fee
Re: Py Wallet recover lost/deleted bitcoin wallets Without using a recovery service
anyone has/ willing to make a detailed operation tutorial including step by step installing and using Python, Py wallet, dependencies, paths, commands for finding, extracting, dumping wallets & prvkeys.......?
Have you lost your working pywallet setup in 2019?It's been 6years so that must be the case.
Anyways, if you can't find the old post containing the guides by HCP that you've followed, it's still saved in your post history,
Here (actual guide in the posts before this): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5161349.msg52313697#msg52313697
Quote from: SheriffBass
Is PyWallet by Jack-Jack the best way to scan old hard drives to recover lost/ deleted bitcoin wallets Without using a recovery service? any easier windows-based alternatives?
This would have been perfect for you since it's updated with full python3 support: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5547957.0But its dependency "bsddb3" will be more tedious to compile in Windows than the whole setup combined. (plus there's no available guide)
And I can't find any pre-build wheel for non-ARM Windows and python 3.12/3.13 of it.
[/I gave up as I couldn't quit use the commands back then, that PC is useless now and the program is mostly corrupt/damaged, the current crypto prices ignited me back up again, so I bought a new PC to start fresh but want to do it right this time. as I'm reading about it now there is way too much for me to know about how to download and operate both Python and PYwallet (which I don't) from how to download python to operate for all users as an admin, to dependencies, paths, virtual environment, all programs even found wallets have to be downloaded/ saved in the same directory, having to specify the name/path to each wallet to dump keys..... it may come natural to you but certainly all overwhelming to me ( I don't even know what a wheel or non-arm windows are!).....so since I don't want to do the trial-and-error thing again, I was wondering if someone had an idiot guide or can walk me through, or just install it on my new PC for me to use on my own even for a fee ]
Py Wallet recover lost/deleted bitcoin wallets Without using a recovery service
Is Py-Wallet by Jack-Jack the best way to scan old hard drives to recover lost/ deleted bitcoin wallets Without using a recovery service? any easier windows-based alternatives? anyone has/ willing to make a detailed operation tutorial including step by step installing and using Python, Py wallet, dependencies, paths, commands for finding, extracting, dumping wallets & prvkeys.......?
Hello, I'm getting this error when I try to install. I did manage to install it 2 years ago on win 8, but now I am running windows 10.
http://imgur.com/8VIP52R
Can anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong?
http://imgur.com/8VIP52R
Can anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong?
The problem is that the installation file you use is quite old and must be updated
Instead do that:
It would be easier to install WinPython (choose 32 or 64bit depending on your computer: https://sourceforge.net/projects/winpython/files/WinPython_2.7/2.7.12.4/)
- Go where you installed it
- Launch "WinPython Command Prompt.exe"
- Execute this: python -m pip install twisted ecdsa
- Then: python C:\path\to\pywallet.py
Would someone be able to help guide through installation and operation of both even for a fee?
Trying to recover a corrupt wallet. Installed python and pywallet on a DigitalOcean VPS, copied over the wallet file and got this:
Any ideas?
Edit: never mind. Looks like pywallet needs you to specify the directory for wallet.dat, even if it's the current one.
[Edit: never mind. Looks like pywallet needs you to specify the directory for wallet.dat, even if it's the current one.]
What do you mean by: Looks like pywallet needs you to specify the directory for wallet.dat, even if it's the current one?
Code:
root@GB-Tron2:~/Test# python2.7 pywallet/pywallet.py --dumpwallet --wallet=testwallet.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "pywallet/pywallet.py", line 5004, in <module>
db_env = create_env(db_dir)
File "pywallet/pywallet.py", line 1269, in create_env
r = db_env.open(db_dir, (DB_CREATE|DB_INIT_LOCK|DB_INIT_LOG|DB_INIT_MPOOL|DB_INIT_TXN|DB_THREAD|DB_RECOVER))
bsddb.db.DBNoSuchFileError: (2, 'No such file or directory -- /root/.bitcoin/__db.001: No such file or directory')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "pywallet/pywallet.py", line 5004, in <module>
db_env = create_env(db_dir)
File "pywallet/pywallet.py", line 1269, in create_env
r = db_env.open(db_dir, (DB_CREATE|DB_INIT_LOCK|DB_INIT_LOG|DB_INIT_MPOOL|DB_INIT_TXN|DB_THREAD|DB_RECOVER))
bsddb.db.DBNoSuchFileError: (2, 'No such file or directory -- /root/.bitcoin/__db.001: No such file or directory')
Any ideas?
Edit: never mind. Looks like pywallet needs you to specify the directory for wallet.dat, even if it's the current one.
[Edit: never mind. Looks like pywallet needs you to specify the directory for wallet.dat, even if it's the current one.]
What do you mean by: Looks like pywallet needs you to specify the directory for wallet.dat, even if it's the current one?
So I was also mining in 2012ish and I had a Butterfly Labs piece and a HashFast Baby Jet. At one point I had 70 BTC but I sold them all long before BTC broke 1000.
The pool I used was the Eligius pool aka LukeJr's pool.
In 2012 until 2014ish I was getting small payments of BTC every day - like .01 - .10 BTC, but then eventually difficulty and electricity made it unprofitable. I still have the HashFast in storage but it's basically an expensive paperweight at this point.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Eligius
The upshot of Eligius pool was that you didn't need to register for an account. You could just have an address and then the coins were mined directly into it.
WOW, you got the history down, that's great info.The pool I used was the Eligius pool aka LukeJr's pool.
In 2012 until 2014ish I was getting small payments of BTC every day - like .01 - .10 BTC, but then eventually difficulty and electricity made it unprofitable. I still have the HashFast in storage but it's basically an expensive paperweight at this point.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Eligius
The upshot of Eligius pool was that you didn't need to register for an account. You could just have an address and then the coins were mined directly into it.
It's a letternumber;letternumber;letternumber; then a string of numbers.....
Do you mean the first three characters could either be letters or numbers, like A1B12345 or ABC12345, or do you mean there is a number and semicolon three times such as A1;B2;C3;12345 ?
Also clarify how you managed to access the scanner's history. Is there some vendor software that shows you this (I assume you're using Windows), or does the scanner have some kind of removeable storage card that you can insert in a computer to read the history?
So it’s in this format: A1;B2;C.....20 numbers....;....153 numbers
It’s on my old phone code scanner history, speaking of scanners/ printers can I somehow access/ regenerate a code from the printing history if it’s stored somewhere on an old drive??
I am having trouble understanding your question, but sounds like no. You need more than a few letters and numbers for a bitcoin address, whether it's for a QR code or something else you need the full address to be able to use it.
So the scanner couldn't read the code ( errored) however stored what it thought was a text QRcode in the form off a letternumber;letternumber;letternumber; then a string of numbers....
my question is can I reverse these letters/ numbers the scanner recorded/ saw into the original QR code? and then rescan it with the proper Bitcoin paper wallet scanner to get the wallet keys?
Thank you,
Do the letters and numbers have any semblance to some format you might recognize, like base58 address, private key WIF, hexadecimal, something that might look like an ID or page number, and such?
Without knowing it's format, you can't attempt any kind of recovery with the data.
This tool is not useful for OP because he doesn't have a damaged QR code, just a bunch of characters that came from one.
Without knowing it's format, you can't attempt any kind of recovery with the data.
Try this: https://merricx.github.io/qrazybox/
This tool is not useful for OP because he doesn't have a damaged QR code, just a bunch of characters that came from one.
It's a letternumber;letternumber;letternumber; then a string of numbers.....
Hello All,
Wondering if I had an old bitcoin paper wallet QR code scanned, never recognized by a generic basic code scanner yet saved in the scanner's history as a few letters and a string of numbers, any way I can reconstruct this QR code from these letters and numbers to a QR code readable by a proper bitcoin paper wallet scanner?
Thank you,
Wondering if I had an old bitcoin paper wallet QR code scanned, never recognized by a generic basic code scanner yet saved in the scanner's history as a few letters and a string of numbers, any way I can reconstruct this QR code from these letters and numbers to a QR code readable by a proper bitcoin paper wallet scanner?
Thank you,
Re: I need Help finding or recovering bitcoins off an old hard drive
I was using windows search looking for .dat files on a 500 GB drive yesterday and it said it needs 1.4TB disk space
Bear in mind that searching only for files that have a .dat file extension at the end will give you A LOT of false positives. .dat's usage is extremely loaded and dozens of programs store their own different file format in files that have this extension, so you might end up with a bunch of .dat files that are not wallet files!
I’ll pile up 1.5 GB of .dat files run it and The program will do the work, skip the junk and find wallet files if present!
I’ll have to buy a bigger hard drive!!
Will this search through All types of folders and files? being compressed, zip, and BKF backup files too?
No... any form of compression will modify the actual structure of the underlying data... it has to, otherwise the data can't get "smaller". This will mean that the script will be unable to detect the wallets by inspecting the bytes for the indicators of a wallet file.It's the same reason why you can't use the "hex string search" method on zip files etc... the data will have changed, and you can't really know how it will have changed... so the "standard" markers you're looking for won't be found...
The only way to do it would be to uncompress the files and then inspect the extracted files... which could be problematic if the archives are encrypted/password protected... and you don't have the password.
OH crap
!!!No wonder I can't find any wallets
will have a long way to find good quality programs to decompress and decipher/make backup files readable to PYwallet then.I was using windows search looking for .dat files on a 500 GB drive yesterday and it said it needs 1.4TB disk space
do u know off any software that decompress many large backup files as: .pbd, .bkf… to a drive, I found one but it creates a tree and I have to go through every file separately to choose one file and restore
Re: I need Help finding or recovering bitcoins off an old hard drive
Are you absolutely sure that all those wallets aren't just password-protected with no receiving addresses created for it yet?
Core doesn't create receiving addresses for new wallets by default, you have to explicitly tell it to give you an address so it's possible the wallets you're trying to dump were only created but never used (by virtue of having not receiving addresses for it).
As far as looking for the private key is concerned, look for something with "5H" "5J" "5K" or "5L" at the beginning of a line.
[ I believe the 70 found "wallets" were probably the empty .dat files created by PYwallet when I ran it (probably 70 times)!!
I thought that bitcoin core automatically creates one wallet when installed, I wasn't trying to dump wallets as I don't know how, was just trying to find a wallet then go to the next step of extracting keys and........ so now I'll plug in a drive with electrum wallet and a backed up bitcoine core wallet to test the PYwallet again to see if PYwallet works as designed on my machine, I also just learned that it doesn't look into compressed files, back up files in their current status no wonder I can't find any wallets
will have a long way to find good quality programs to decompress and decipher/make backup files readable to PYwallet, I was using windows search looking for .dat files on a 500 GB drive yesterday and it said it needs 1.4TB disk space .]
Re: I need Help finding or recovering bitcoins off an old hard drive
I'm sorry I'm a little confused, this thread is a year and a half old and I don't get if you managed to find any wallet or key
Based on this I guessed not
When were the wallets created? Are you sure it is a bitcoin-qt/core wallet?
BTW I found out the pywallet recovery is bugged, I fix a bit of that a couple hours ago you can try the new version and see if it finds any key
I'll be fixing this over the next weeks
[yes I’ve been looking since 2017!! Believe the wallet was from 2009-2010! I Barley Lerned enough python to download and run Pywallet, already ran it on all my drives and every time it’s done it say either partial wallet or creates a wallet but never shows any keys!
I’m surprised because this test was to see it if will capture the keys off the Bitcoin core wallet I had running on that hard drive 2 weeks ago but it didn’t 🤔 that’s why I question if I have something missing in my program download or operation?]
Based on this I guessed not
Quote
Found 70 possible wallets
found 0 possible encrypted keys
found 0 possible unencrypted keys
The 70 only means pywallet found 70 master keys (wallet encryption parameters) but no addresses at all, this is weirdfound 0 possible encrypted keys
found 0 possible unencrypted keys
When were the wallets created? Are you sure it is a bitcoin-qt/core wallet?
BTW I found out the pywallet recovery is bugged, I fix a bit of that a couple hours ago you can try the new version and see if it finds any key
I'll be fixing this over the next weeks
[yes I’ve been looking since 2017!! Believe the wallet was from 2009-2010! I Barley Lerned enough python to download and run Pywallet, already ran it on all my drives and every time it’s done it say either partial wallet or creates a wallet but never shows any keys!
I’m surprised because this test was to see it if will capture the keys off the Bitcoin core wallet I had running on that hard drive 2 weeks ago but it didn’t 🤔 that’s why I question if I have something missing in my program download or operation?]
Re: I need Help finding or recovering bitcoins off an old hard drive
then since I'm pretty bad with computers, don't trust myself with proper installation, operation of PY wallet and can't run simple commands as dump wallet or privkeys….. I ran Electrum to sweep keys from the Py wallet generated/ found wallets which gave me a page full of numbers multiple lines of zeros and a bunch of numbers on the last 3 lines. looked it up and referred me to adding p2wpkh IN front of the key but its a whole page full of numbers and I can't tell which is the key!!
[I didn’t run Pywallet dump keys as I don’t know how! I as assuming the Pywallet would acknowledge the presence of a wallet and keys and display them]
pywallet with the --dumpwallet switch writes the private keys to a JSON file which is a kind of file that has a structure like this:
{
"key": "value",
"key2": [1, 2, 3],
"key3": {
"subkey": "anothervalue"
}
}
and so on. If your file doesn't look like this, then it was created with another pywallet command.
In your case, look for a key called "keys", and it's going to have a list of key-values {} in them that have "address" and "sec" subkeys. The "sec" key has your private key inside and it begins with a "H","J","K" or "L" (or any of these with a "5" at the beginning). This is what you import into Electrum.
"addr" is the address for the private key. Look at the characters at the beginning ("1", "3", or "bc1") and add the correct prefix in front of the private key to import it into Electrum (p2pkh: , p2sh: , or p2wpkh: respectively).
If you don't see "sec" keys next to "addr" keys then it means that particular private key is encrypted and you need to run "pywallet --dumpwallet --passphrase yourpasswordhere" to decrypt it.
[/ I’ll been to learn the command for Pywallet dump keys and dump wallet to proceed! ] just opening the wallet file from Electrum did show an address on the bottom starting with bc1 and asked to add p2wphk to the key but I can’t figure out what the key is from all these numbers in the file!!
[I didn’t run Pywallet dump keys as I don’t know how! I as assuming the Pywallet would acknowledge the presence of a wallet and keys and display them]
pywallet with the --dumpwallet switch writes the private keys to a JSON file which is a kind of file that has a structure like this:
{
"key": "value",
"key2": [1, 2, 3],
"key3": {
"subkey": "anothervalue"
}
}
and so on. If your file doesn't look like this, then it was created with another pywallet command.
In your case, look for a key called "keys", and it's going to have a list of key-values {} in them that have "address" and "sec" subkeys. The "sec" key has your private key inside and it begins with a "H","J","K" or "L" (or any of these with a "5" at the beginning). This is what you import into Electrum.
"addr" is the address for the private key. Look at the characters at the beginning ("1", "3", or "bc1") and add the correct prefix in front of the private key to import it into Electrum (p2pkh: , p2sh: , or p2wpkh: respectively).
If you don't see "sec" keys next to "addr" keys then it means that particular private key is encrypted and you need to run "pywallet --dumpwallet --passphrase yourpasswordhere" to decrypt it.
[/ I’ll been to learn the command for Pywallet dump keys and dump wallet to proceed! ] just opening the wallet file from Electrum did show an address on the bottom starting with bc1 and asked to add p2wphk to the key but I can’t figure out what the key is from all these numbers in the file!!
Re: I need Help finding or recovering bitcoins off an old hard drive
so to be sure I have PYwallet properly installed and operating as it should, I ran it on a hard drive with bitcoin core (which I assume should already have a wallet and keys) , I also had a folder of previously found/ created wallets and partial wallets (results from running PY wallet multiple times on multiple drives) on that same hard drive, ran PYwallet and got this result: Found 70 possible wallets
found 0 possible encrypted keys
found 0 possible unencrypted keys
the wallet is encrypted and the passphrase is correct
importing:...…..
I was hoping PY wallet would recognize the bitcoin core wallet and I would get at least the one good key off the drive!!
what am I doing wrong??
then since I'm pretty bad with computers, don't trust myself with proper installation, operation of PY wallet and can't run simple commands as dump wallet or privkeys….. I ran Electrum to sweep keys from the Py wallet generated/ found wallets which gave me a page full of numbers multiple lines of zeros and a bunch of numbers on the last 3 lines. looked it up and referred me to adding p2wpkh IN front of the key but its a whole page full of numbers and I can't tell which is the key!!
any advice??
Thank you,
found 0 possible encrypted keys
found 0 possible unencrypted keys
the wallet is encrypted and the passphrase is correct
importing:...…..
I was hoping PY wallet would recognize the bitcoin core wallet and I would get at least the one good key off the drive!!
what am I doing wrong??
then since I'm pretty bad with computers, don't trust myself with proper installation, operation of PY wallet and can't run simple commands as dump wallet or privkeys….. I ran Electrum to sweep keys from the Py wallet generated/ found wallets which gave me a page full of numbers multiple lines of zeros and a bunch of numbers on the last 3 lines. looked it up and referred me to adding p2wpkh IN front of the key but its a whole page full of numbers and I can't tell which is the key!!
any advice??
Thank you,
The __db.00x files are only internal files for Berkeley DB so not helpful
But yeah you can try the db_dump command (db-utils in apt) on your wallet, it should output a bunch of (sensitive!) hexadecimal data without errors
I just tested with an old wallet of mine, maybe from something like 2013, and it worked as expected
If it works for you then try deleting (backup them if you want but they aren't needed) the __db.00x files
But yeah you can try the db_dump command (db-utils in apt) on your wallet, it should output a bunch of (sensitive!) hexadecimal data without errors
I just tested with an old wallet of mine, maybe from something like 2013, and it worked as expected
If it works for you then try deleting (backup them if you want but they aren't needed) the __db.00x files
Does the existence of the DB files indicate that Jack Jack found a valid/ actual bitcoin wallet on my device??
Thank you, and welcome back!
it would be useful to have:
- updated Pywallet that works "properly" with newer wallet.dat files and doesn't just suppress/ignore errors
- Python 3 compatibility would be a bonus, as Python 2 is now completely unsupported
These 2 are a must, plus these:- updated Pywallet that works "properly" with newer wallet.dat files and doesn't just suppress/ignore errors
- Python 3 compatibility would be a bonus, as Python 2 is now completely unsupported
- clean that crazy source code, there's no reason for it to be 5000 lines long and to be that ugly
- change the --datadir and --wallet arguments
- kill (for now) the web interface and remove the twisted dependency (that would help reducing the code by the way)
- be more explicit about ecdsa being only optional
When do you think this will be available to download and run??