Dumb ass takes crypto loss like a man!

Long read grabbed straight off of discord, but a life lesson in how to take your own stupid mistakes like a man, and learn from them!

Abbreviated version:- I lost roughly $4k in Alqo by deleting my wallet.dat file when doing a wallet update, and not taking a back-up first
first few hours I was mad as hell, had a bad night's sleep, followed by a shitty day at work, got home from work, grabbed a beer, kissed my wife, had some cuddles and chuckles with my little baby boy, and realised I only have myself to blame, and life goes on...

seriously though, learn from someone elses mistakes, this is not one you want to make yourself!

BACK ... UP ... NOW ... !!!

cryptoman - Today at 20:54
so it looks like i'm the only idiot who managed to accidentally delete his wallet.dat file when upgrading the wallet during the recent alqo blockchain issues
and yes i'm just that dumb that i didnt take a backup first...
anyone who can help me get back into my wallet, i'll gladly give them 1k alqo as a reward
let me just run through what i've tried... i'm running win10, but i dont have 'restore older version' available within that particular file path, i've long since dumped the contents of my recycle bin, i've downloaded a piece of free file recovery software, but the file path is on an SSD which means anything more than roughly 24hrs old has been overwritten now, and it looks like i probably deleted my original wallet.dat file last sunday

pretty sure i'm beyond help here, but if anyone can help, it's the #1 crypto community out there!
go go action alqo team :nerd:

oh, for reference, my little blunder cost me 13k alqo, i can still see my 10k alqo in my MN, but i cant touch it or withdraw it.... YAY!!!

Guillaume - Today at 20:57
@cryptoman Wow I'm sorry man

cryptoman - Today at 20:57
oh yeah, and i've tried all the wallet repair functions with the QT app

yannick - Today at 20:57
you have the "backup" folder?

cryptoman - Today at 20:57
i appreciate the sympathy, but it's my own dumb ass fault, cant really get angry about it

Guillaume - Today at 20:58
maybe you still have this ?

yannick - Today at 20:58
@cryptoman download a "data restore tool" u have good chance to restore your deleted wallet.dat

cryptoman - Today at 20:58
no backup folder, unfortunately i religiously followed the recommendation to delete everything in my ALQO folder other than masternode.config & wallet.dat, so i deleted all the subfolders, including the backup folder
but i must have accidentally included the wallet.dat in one of the bulk delete operations by mistake at some point
if by 'data restore tool' you mean something like https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm
i tried that, but coz im running an SSD and the missing data is already about 5 days old, it's long gone
Free Data Recovery Software Download for File Recovery - EaseUS Da...
EaseUS free data recovery software can help recover data after accident deletion, formatting, partition error, system crash etc. Free download data recovery software and follow the guide to recover lost files from PCs, laptops or removable devices.

yannick - Today at 21:00
@cryptoman when u delete a file there is only 1 byte who get changed so u have good chance to restore it by tools
oh..

cryptoman - Today at 21:00
yeah thats true on an HDD, but SSDs dont work that way unfortunately
short of a miracle i'm pretty sure i've fucked myself, but as one last gasp i thought it cant hurt to throw it out to the community

Guillaume - Today at 21:01
Bit of a late advice but from now on create a backup and copy it on 1 or 2 usb keys(edited)

yannick - Today at 21:02
13k alqo ouch :S

cryptoman - Today at 21:03
just backed up all other wallets this evening, but £3k is one hell of an expensive way to learn the importance of backups...
but like i said, i only have myself to blame

Guillaume - Today at 21:04
@cryptoman Yeah it sucks, but at least you're taking it like a man and not blaming the Alqo team like others have done.
From what I read so far there's no way to recover it :frowning:

cryptoman - Today at 21:05
i was kinda mad yesterday, if they hadnt had the chain issues, i wouldnt have needed to do the wallt update
but i only have myself to blame for not backing up first

Raphael - Today at 21:06
We‘ll make sure to put a backup advice into the next update announcements! Really sorry for your loss, @cryptoman
Always make a backup folks! :exclamation:️
Or even multiple ones on different devices!

cryptoman - Today at 21:07
i appreciate the support everyone, if there's some alqo wizard out there who can wave a magic wand and save the day, be sure to point them in my direction!!!

yannick - Today at 21:09
3k?

cryptoman - Today at 21:09
i lost 13k

yannick - Today at 21:09
you know price is at 0.37 - 0.45 :smile:

cryptoman - Today at 21:10
im talking GBP
im from the uk

ra6e - Today at 21:10
Man, that's heavy
I got copies everywhere, also encrypted on a cloud

Guillaume - Today at 21:11
@cryptoman please try Recuva software, it's apparently really good for deleted file recovery

cryptoman - Today at 21:11
i got paper copies of some of my keys in a fireproof safe at work, but for some reason i never got round to baacking up my alqo, just got lazy i guess
thanks @Guillaume i'll give it a try

Guillaume - Today at 21:13
But use this link instead: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
Download Recuva | Recover deleted files, free!
Recover and un-delete files with Recuva, the award-winning file recovery tool by the makers of CCleaner. Download the latest version here.

cryptoman - Today at 21:13
my only hope is santa alqo clause drops 13k from his sack this xmas https://explorer.alqo.org/wallet/APfUjkYkpeY6nwtuYxhXxqnVuah1aLawcd haha :joy:

Guillaume - Today at 21:13
the other one is not good

yannick - Today at 21:14
wtf who is this haha

Guillaume - Today at 21:14
that's a lot of alqo :open_mouth:

yannick - Today at 21:14
139 MN

Raphael - Today at 21:14
I don’t think that’s your wallet :smile: @cryptoman

yannick - Today at 21:14
7k ALQO per day :smile:
he said this is santa and he should send him 13k :smile:

Raphael - Today at 21:15
Not running though, they wouldn’t be on only one address @yannick

yannick - Today at 21:15
ah its a exchange wallet huh

cryptoman - Today at 21:15
its the mystical santa alqo claus right? or maybe the fabled alqo unicorn, i heard his bags are huuuuuuge

honeymoose - Today at 21:16
alqo up to 5k sats?
am i seeing shit?

tomwrx - Today at 21:16
Ath was 20k sat so only time needs to get at least to 10k sat

cryptoman - Today at 21:17
@Guillaume scan running... gulp

Guillaume - Today at 21:20
@cryptoman You should assume that it won't work if you don't want to be disapointed... that's my method :stuck_out_tongue:
Doesn't mean that you shouldn't try though
I'm crossing my fingers for you though!

cryptoman - Today at 21:21
i'll try anything at this stage, but at the same time i'm pretty proud of myself that i've come to terms with probably one of the biggest mistakes in my 31yrs of existence within 24hrs
gotta learn from your mistakes right

Guillaume - Today at 21:23
It's good to be able to move on from what you can't control anymore

bankielewicz - Today at 21:23
Does alqo allow staking at the moment?

Guillaume - Today at 21:23
@bankielewicz nope
not yet

bankielewicz - Today at 21:24
Will that be an option later?

yannick - Today at 21:24
https://explorer.alqo.org/tx/3bbd6d555fbe633fbb719b95ee60583443a5ba517c1293008afb586e837d18ce why is there a transaction without dev fee?

cryptoman - Today at 21:24
still probably gonna barf when i see alqo hit $1+, then $2+, and so on...

Guillaume - Today at 21:25
I would too..
@bankielewicz Yes, I'm not sure when it will start though

cryptoman - Today at 21:27
well i appreciate all the kind words and helpful input everyone, anyone knows someone who might have some magical powers, or comes up with some amazing idea, please have them PM me

Guillaume - Today at 21:27
So recuva failed ?

bankielewicz - Today at 21:27
What’s the daily payout for a mn? Is it still 75 coins?

jabbarwack - Today at 21:28
75 every day and a half or so

cryptoman - Today at 21:28
@Guillaume scan hasnt finished yet, it's got about 4hrs to run, im scanning all 3x drives in my laptop just in case

Sn0wiss - Today at 21:28
https://explorer.alqo.org/masternodes all detailed infos here, 75 XLQ every 34h

Raphael - Today at 21:29
Little sidenote: those times are not that accurate yet, so please wait a few days until you count on them! :wink:

Sn0wiss - Today at 21:30
ow okay :smiley:

Guillaume - Today at 21:30
@cryptoman All right good luck

bankielewicz - Today at 21:30
Thank you for the info

ra6e - Today at 21:35
@cryptoman are u on a win?

cryptoman - Today at 21:35
scans gonna take a few hours before i know, not holding my breath, but you never know
@Kevin "pixelz" Collmer got any magic ideas mr wizard for idiots like me who managed to totally screw themselves?

ra6e - Today at 21:37
Are u on a windows machine?

cryptoman - Today at 21:38
yeah, but unfortunately i dont have 'restore previous versions' available on that particular file

ra6e - Today at 21:38
Shame, well recuva helped me once
Fingers crossed for ya mate

cryptoman - Today at 21:39
really appreciate the kind words everyone, makes me feel about 5% less of a complete moron :cry:

yannick - Today at 21:40
wtf is up today?
got 7 rewards today from 6 MN

cryptoman - Today at 21:42
niiiiiiice!

ra6e - Today at 21:42
Whales problems.... XD

yannick - Today at 21:43
first world problems xD

cryptoman - Today at 21:45
hey someone mentioned i'm not the only idiot who deleted their wallet.dat during the recent round of updates, is that right?

yannick - Today at 21:45
i only hear about you xD

Kalope - Today at 21:46
@cryptomana I only heard of you, but I am surprised it was, I was expecting many more people to make this mistake.

cryptoman - Today at 21:50
it's a long shot, but assuming there's a few of us who made the mistake (and the dev team would know if there's more than one of us, right?)
and currently there's 2069 MNs running, meaning we have a total MN payout of almost 78k alqo every 34hrs at the moment
seeing as this is by far the most democratic and generally 'nice' group of people i've come across in the community, i wonder how well a vote would be received to waive 1x MN payout for all MN holders to set up a rescue fund for the handful of idiots like me who screwed themselves over
major long shot sure, and it's probably just wishful thinking on my part, but an idea worth throwing out there none the less...

makesushi - Today at 21:51
@cryptoman you shoudl really have a back up of your wallet.dat

cryptoman - Today at 21:51
i agree, and i'm not trying to blame anyone else, i came here looking for help that's all

yannick - Today at 21:51
there is no way to do some rescure
what happens when i hack you and ask the devs to get me your ALQO balance?
:unamused:
"hey i lost my wallet dat pls send me this alqo coins"

ra6e - Today at 21:52
Yeah it's a no go

cryptoman - Today at 21:52
good point, i didnt think about it that way round

yannick - Today at 21:52
:stuck_out_tongue:

makesushi - Today at 21:53
its crypto basics, make a back up... cause if something hapend to your pc you loose the coins(edited)

cryptoman - Today at 21:54
like i said, i screwed up, it's on me, and i can deal with that
just spitballing

yannick - Today at 21:55
its like to lose a bag with 5000€ xD

makesushi - Today at 21:55
I know that situtaion, it sucks I once sent 500$ of bitcoin to a bitcoincash address

cryptoman - Today at 21:55
probably also a no-go, but assuming recuva doesnt work for me in a couple of hours, then is there some way the team can reappropriate the funds in my MN back towards deev costs? at least that would be better than the whole lot just being lost forever

makesushi - Today at 21:55
did you delete the auto back ups?(edited)

cryptoman - Today at 21:55
at the end of the day, its only money, i can make it back again
it's the waste that frustrates me more than anything

makesushi - Today at 21:56
what about recovering from recycle bin?

cryptoman - Today at 21:56
yeah when i was reinstalling the wallet, i took the 'delete everything other than mastenode.conf & wallet.dat' a little too literally...

yannick - Today at 21:56
did u look into your trash folder?

cryptoman - Today at 21:58
appreciate the thought guys, but tried that one pretty early on, unfortunately i'm a bit OCD with my trash folder, got a habit of emptying it multiple times a day, something about seeing that little icon on the desktop with trash in it, i just get this compulsive urge to empty it lol!
i empty the digital trash more often than i empty the actual trash

yannick - Today at 21:58
urgh

Raphael - Today at 21:59
Feel you with that habit. But that’s why I‘m always making more than enough backups, to prevent myself from deleting anything important too early :smile: @cryptoman(edited)

cryptoman - Today at 22:00
whats dumb is i have hard paper back ups of my ledger keys and other wallets stored in a fireproof safe in my office, but i guess after a while i just got lazy with my backups
jesus i even have a qnap nas setup at home periodically backing up all my media and work folders, but i dont put crypto on it because it's networked but not behind a firewall, so i didnt feel it was safe enough.... d'oh!!!!

ra6e - Today at 22:02
Happens when you expect it the least..

Raphael - Today at 22:02
Make a to do list, so that won’t happen ever again! Believe me, I also had to pay some of my Cryptos to learn it the hard way :expressionless:

cryptoman - Today at 22:03
very true, no choice but to learn and move on, but again i really appreciate all the helpful comments and feedback, it's been cathartic if nothing else :facepalm:

Raphael - Today at 22:04
Hope we all will see you here in the community from time to time in the future anyway? :slight_smile:

ra6e - Today at 22:04
Happened to me with bitsend or something. Mined like 1k of 'em and then formatted the disk xD no backups either

cryptoman - Today at 22:04
fuck that, i'll be chucking in some more fiat to try and grab another MN while i can still afford it
i'm kicking myself now for losing it

ra6e - Today at 22:05
That's the spirit man

cryptoman - Today at 22:05
i'll kick myself a whole lot harder if i dont get back on the train ASAP

Raphael - Today at 22:06
That’s the man of the day! :muscle: Appreciate your thinking, you won’t have to be worried about it anymore soon, new rewards should recover your losses soon :wink:

cryptoman - Today at 22:06
besides i got a nice shiny new empty wallet just waiting to tack those transactions! :grin:

Raphael - Today at 22:06
Right, and it’s definitely up to date now! :smile:

cryptoman - Today at 22:07
man i got the most up to date wallet out of all of y'all, it's so up to date it might even be from tomorrow!
just a shame it's full of moths & dust, instead of bursting at the seams with a fat bag of alqo

Raphael - Today at 22:09
Damn, hope the future looks bright, send a postcard maybe :smile:

cryptoman - Today at 22:09
tomorrow is a beautiful day, sun is shining, and the alqo bull run is gonna blow your mind :money_mouth:

ra6e - Today at 22:10
Quite

Raphael - Today at 22:10
Sounds great! :grin::muscle:

cryptoman - Today at 22:11
anyway, if nothing else, i hope my dumb ass can act as a warning and maybe prevent some other poor unfortunate soul from making the same dumb ass mistake, and seriously if anyone catches drift of a convo where someone has discovered some magical file salvage process for SSDs, make sure they PM me
in the meantime, i've got my remaining 3% balance of hope pinned on this recuva run, who knows, i might get luck
thanks again everyone, still hands down the best team and nicest buch of people anywhere in crypto

Raphael - Today at 22:13
Thanks, crossing my fingers and good luck with the search! And kudos to your mindset, really inspiring! :slight_smile: Cheers!

If you made it this far, come and point and laugh at me on twitter @LuckyDragonNo5

Just make sure you go back up first :-)