I've looked through every file imaginable and I can't find the Wallet I had all my bitcoin in. I'm about to faint, you have no idea how much money I just lost. I'm trying my best not to curse up a storm in here, but I don't see the wallet anywhere, i'm beyond angry right now. Can anyone help? Please?
2 Answers
See here first, https://multibit.org/en/help/v0.5/help_troubleshooting.html, Then here, https://multibit.org/en/help/v0.5/help_support_missingWallets.html
Also, has been asked previously, Closed wallet in MultiBit, is it gone for good??
If you didn't delete the file it should just be a matter of finding it.
Even it it was deleted, if you don't create new files, it can probably be recovered since the data is not gone, just the directory entry. Creating new files may re-use the disk area overwriting the file data you want to recover so don't do that. Look for disk recovery software. Years ago I wrote such commercial software to recover images where the directory was corrupted, it can be done.
The first rule of recovery is stop using the disk immediately! Write protect the disk if possible. Make a bit-to-bit copy to another disk. Now try to recover using the copy.
If you had a lot of money in the wallet, pull the disk immediately and get it to a disk recovery service, they are not cheap.
Is backup worth the trouble? Not until it is to late.
There are two main ways to loose files: a bad disk and deletion in error. Thus you need two types of backup: daily backup and archival.
Why? Because sooner or later both types of loss will occur.
For a coin wallet, print out the private key and address, then put them in a safe, the more value the more secure the safe needs to be. The common portable safes are just that portable. They can be token and usually opened just be dropping on a corner. Get a safe either to big and heavy to be stolen and/or securely mounted in the building. Most key locks can be drilled in less than a minute. Combinations locks are susceptible to a runbber-hose attack. Bank vaults are best, they have live security of the vault.
What do I do? I have hourly incremental backups. Have all my data on a Raid5 with a hot standby drive. Daily that backs up to another Raid5 drive. A couple of time a year I make disk copies to raw drives and put them in a safe. I also have my software archives off-site. Am I paranoid? Not really, I've just been in the computer business for 40+ years. For paranoid see my wife, she is paid to be paranoid and she does it well. :-)
