We get a lot of enquiries from people who bought BTC a long time ago (2011 – 2015) and then forgot all about it.
They stored their Bitcoin in a wallet on their hard drive and now that hard drive is in a computer stored in the loft that doesn’t even switch on. What can be done to recover their Bitcoin wallet from their old computer ?
- First of all, see if the hard drive is working. It doesn’t matter if the computer no longer works, the important question is does the hard drive still work ?
- Remove the hard drive from the old computer and attach it to your current computer using a USB to SATA to cable. If the drive is recognised by the computer then it is still working which is great news. If it isn’t working go to point 5.
- Use File Explorer to search the hard drive for a wallet.dat file. This is the filename of your Bitcoin wallet.
- Download a compatible wallet application to your current computer and use it to open your wallet.dat file and get access to your BTC. Job done !
- If your hard drive isn’t working: This is sometimes the case. Hard drives are not the most resilient of devices and if your hard drive isn’t recognised, don’t despair, our sister company Data Clinic Ltd is a specialist data recovery company who have been recovering the data from broken hard drives for over 20 years. Contact them at https://www.dataclinic.co.uk/
- If your you’ve got your wallet but can’t remember your password: Please contact us – we should be able to help you.