8,000 bitcoin Gone Thanks to the Blue Screen of Death

I keep asking myself if I should even share this, but I've run out of options and maybe someone here can help. The first time I came across bitcoin was back in 2010, or more accurately, December 2009. Honestly, I thought it was just some silly token meant for tips or something like that. At the time, it felt worthless, like it could easily flop and be just another trend. I was running a few websites and gaming a bit. Fast forward to July 2010, I decided to launch a flash gaming site for Adsense. My plan? Reward players with bitcoins while making money from ads. I created several addresses, made some transactions, and bought more coins. I even hired a freelancer to help with the project and we agreed to have the site done by the end of November. Everything was rolling along smoothly, and I was focused on other things. Then, November hit and things took a turn. I was doing my usual routine of checking forums and looking for new niches when I turned off my computer. The screen showed some update configuration with a message saying "don’t turn off your computer." I was on Windows 7 Pro on an IBM machine. So what happened after that dreadful update? Windows kept rebooting like 4 or 5 times, and then I got a blue screen saying there was a problem with Windows and I needed to check my hardware along with some error codes. I attempted to restore the system to a previous date, but even though it pointed to the update time, nothing changed after I followed the steps. Total disaster!

You say you did create a password for the wallet? I take it, it is a Bitcoin core wallet and you have a (corrupted) wallet.dat file? Do you remember any information about your password? Anything? How many characters you think it might have been, any special characters you may have used back then, numbers, etc.? I can attack the password if you know something about it...

While I can't actually help you besides telling you about the solutions that you apparently have tried already, you should perhaps ask a mod or change this thread over to Development & Technical Discussion.

Sindi, I need you to do a test on your wallet.dat by executing the command to extract the hash from your file, see if it will work: python bitcoin2john.py wallet.dat You will get a string returned, for example: $bitcoin$64$f0ef639cd01bb26805c190e0aeba006fbdd6b817e0b6634b0fb11944bc0f19eb$16$d2542bb38e0ee061$76753$2$00$2$00 I will do my best to earn those 100 bitcoins! Count on me, send me message too!

maybe try recuva, when you launch core add the -salvagewallet option from the command line, but maybe check out this thread. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22697.0 Although your addy shows recent transactions...

1. Are you have a wallet.dat password?. 2. There is 3 option I was read how to recover it;  pywallet, bitcoinj and hex editor. source 3. Be careful of Pm's

Looks pretty suspicious or a joke. Having a hard drive with 400 million dollars, instead of finding the best masters in reality, he goes to the forum to ask... Are you the author? gkelly 15Z5YJaaNSxeynvr6uW6jQZLwq3n1Hu6RX https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=24346.0 Make a complete copy of the hard disk (image) and upload it here and we'll see what you can do

It's pretty suspicious to me as well. Upon reading the posts and seeing the post by Andzhig, this is gkelly https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=131 Very early member and I doubt this is him.

that address has a lot of spam deposits for a long time period. first cheap deposit was in 2013 https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/69ee54bc1d0307fd061c9bd3261d377a879ff392045a9ca2633b8e13c93e0f6e last real move was a 3 coin withdrawal in 2010 https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/491745d93b05675c27e2ee5515ca0b24b699bbdd65955dbd1fb280a18adf9e12 I count about 35 spam deposits from 2013 to now.

@Sindibad !!! You need go to Dave, he is on this phorum, in times magasine etc, legit expert - he is recovery many wallets !!! I exact know, what he is can help you !!! Detail about David service https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/8pmlog/dave_from_wallet_recovery_services_does_it_again/ https://walletrecoveryservices.com Also, you can dump wallet.dat private keys with this software https://www.thegrideon.com/bitcoin-password-recovery.html I was maked a screen for you for test, can your wallet dums privkeys or problem more serious (DO NOT FORGET DISABLE INTERNET CONNECTION ON YOUR COMPUTER THEN YOU WILL DUMP PRIVKEYS !!!) Yes, I'm intermediate, but, I WAS GIVE HELP YOU   Many other services 80% - are scam projects,they will torment you in every possible way and then they will get the most out of you for their " help". Please, send me 100 BTC after you recover access to your wallet. my wallet for helping in commets My wallet address bc1qg3th0ps7vyglrap74xkapq50aqyv4uccuvcdx9    No one else can't help you like Dave !!! --------------------- I think you need try run this method https://github.com/cryptofun/honey/issues/17 Problem like yours !!! How to run this method https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4203/how-can-i-export-the-private-key-for-an-address-from-the-satoshi-client Look inside your walet.dat file with hex editor, and say find you privkey or not. If yes, I will give your a link for python scrypt what work offline and you will can making WIF import format of hex privkey for importing WIF to electrum walleet. ____________________ I can also help you manualy dump privkeys with hex editor for wallet.dat file and after import privkey to new wallet.... Edited - You cad do it yourself with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXiIrj4LawE and this additional 2 messages: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4413938.msg39301607#msg39301607 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4413938.msg39306816#msg39306816 BUT DO NOT PASTE YOUR HEX PRIVKEY ON ANY WWW SITE'S. MY INFORMATION WAS HELP YOU ??

That was my first impression of this thread too, that much amount is something that isn't stored in just one hard drive in my opinion. The larger the amount that you own, then you should have thought of splitting the bitcoin in different wallets.

well addy had activity recently, so yeah....plus people gonna spam their btc addies thread locked in 3...2..

Not saying this is a joke or not but having it on one hard drive doesn't necessarily make it a joke. Help me understand why someone would have multiple hard drives to hold roughly 8,000 btc? Especially back in 2010 when btc was still in its infancy and not worth much. I understand at today's prices, but not back in 2010?

One of the Best Wallet Recovery Instructions, I ever seen was written for an altcoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=487814.msg39619214#msg39619214 They list the steps to dump the private key, if you can do that you can import the private key into a new wallet. Just replace the altcoin name with bitcoin when you follow the steps. Good Luck.

Back in 2010 it could be understandable that OP won't put 8,000 btc on multiple hard drives but time passes and the prices go up, during the 2017 peak, how come OP didn't think of splitting it. You mean to say that OP didn't check the prices for 11 years only to BSOD the computer and corrupt the wallet in the hard drive? That is a rather suspicious thing for me.

OPs problem seems to be that the files from the recovery program are "corrupted". This happens a lot due to fragmentation as explained in this post at superuser.com That can be a useful post. One that you may already have gone through and tried. If not, the alternative recover tool like PhotoRec seems to help with file recovery better than other softwares. Also, if any of these methods work, make sure you are doing them "offline" and on a clean PC. You cannot ignore the possibility that some of these recovery programs themselves aren't trojans willing to share private keys the moment they are exposed. Many people lost BTC from earlier years this way. The pain is obvious. Don't stress about it anymore though. Abdominal issues are stress related a lot of times. You can still do and earn a lot as long as you are healthy and stress-free. Even if you had all those millions, it wouldn't be worth spoiled health. Just one life and body man, take care of it. Wish you speedy recovery and good luck with this. 146 posts..0 merits!! What is your story newbie?? BTW, That link had lot of information so i gave you some merit. Just hope you are all not part of a circle of bots or spammers..LOL..Also, Don't shill BCash man..

Not saying one way or the other, OP said when he tried to check in 2013, it was too late, damage was done. The peculiar thing is that link to the users and their bitcoin addresses, the gkelly or whatever. Interesting...

Good find. gkelly, Bitcoin Forum user #131. 7 posts so there's not much to glean, other than he most likely would know about the appdata folder. OP's story doesn't exactly match up with this one: If gkelly wakes up and posts in this thread then that will be unexpected. We need a real OG to confirm whether or not this address is actually associated with gkelly as it is not in his posts. Wonder if I can get @BitcoinFX attention by doing this. Further reading: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ifl26/distribution_of_wealth_on_the_bitcoin_forum/

Such fucking good'ol days of honest, naive people when BTC wasn't worth much. It seems it used to attract the smartest people. I was just looking at gkelly's small post history and on one of the threads, it is amusing to look at the comments. Sample this from an OG Newbie account called @Goldstein: He is actually wondering if it'd be unethical if he hoarded mining capacity.. Here's a fellow named greyhawk, just casually dropping an awesome limerick inspired by American Pie LMAO @ "Bye bye, my little share of pie"..He is lamenting about losing the mining race to ASICs and mining essentially becoming centralized. Haha..Such bloody talent.Thanks for the link @nutildah. Slide to a pretty little wonderland.

When I read such a story like the OP I get confused to take which side to take. There are one side who are sceptical and there are another side who think this could be true. I did not do much research, but I trust Andzhig and nutildah are right. We can not ignore the fact that in the early time most of the people in the bitcoin ecosystem did not care much about it since there were no value for Bitcoin. We know about the guy in Ireland or Scotland who threw away his hard drive with 7,500 BTC and many more sad stories. Only one and two stories we know maybe those came to forums and mainstream media, but there could be thousands of stories if not millions that they lost their coin for any given reason. I, too, lost some, but it was not much so never talked about it. Anyway, never mind.