A Reddit user claims that he lost $50,000 worth of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin when the SSD where he stored his Bitcoin wallet caught fire and damaged beyond recovery. The fire could have originated from another computer part, though.
Based on the images shared by the user on social media, the computer’s hard disk drive was also severely burnt.
According to the user, he/she had backed up the wallet and created offline copies of the data needed to restore it. He/she allegedly wrote the recovery code on a piece of paper and also stored it on a USB drive.
However, both the piece of paper and the USB drive were placed near the hard drive storing the Bitcoin wallet address, and they were all burnt down during the fire.
The need for safe storage
The incident showed that digital currency traders and users should take extra precautions when backing up their data.
They should keep at least one offline copy of the important information in a place that is far from their computers or laptops.
They should also consider investing in a fireproof and flood-proof storage device to keep their important data safe.
The troubles in hard disk data recovery
Although the data that were lost in incidents like the aforementioned can be recovered, it is very challenging and costly to do so.
There are individuals and companies that are willing to do the job, but they are expected to charge a very high price for such service.
In fact, their fee could be much higher than the total Bitcoin that can be recovered if they are successful. According to the user, he lost about 17 Bitcoins worth a total of around $50,000 from the fire.