DriveSavers Featured in Popular Mechanics: Our Role in the Search for £1 Billion in Lost Bitcoin

Howells mistakenly threw out a hard drive containing the private key to his bitcoin wallet. That small 2.5-inch hard drive holds the key to unlocking a crypto cache now worth almost £1 billion.

Years of legal battles with the city of Newport, Wales, mounting public interest, and still no hard drive, Howells launched a recovery effort involving landfill excavation experts, AI-powered robotics, and DriveSavers, the industry leader in hard drive data recovery.

James Howells is hardly alone in losing his bitcoin key. A 2023 report from Unchained Capital estimates that up to 3.8 million bitcoin — more than £400 billion worth — have been permanently lost. In the world of cryptocurrency, there’s no 1-800 number or password reset link. Once the data is gone, it’s gone — unless specialists like DriveSavers can recover it.

Recovering the hard drive is only step one. The real test is whether the data on that drive can be salvaged after over 12 years in a landfill—potentially exposed to heat, moisture, corrosion, and physical damage.

In the article, DriveSavers Director of Engineering Mike Cobb explains what it will take to retrieve the 51-character bitcoin key:

This level of precision, combined with DriveSavers Data Recovery’s decades of experience and specialised cleanroom technology, makes us uniquely qualified to attempt this high-stakes recovery.

We’ve pulled data from devices crushed by snowblowers, damaged by natural disasters, and submerged in floodwaters. Now, we’re preparing for our most ambitious mission yet: recovering one of the most valuable strings of characters ever lost.

The odds are long—but not impossible. According to the article, modern data recovery miracles do happen. Once the drive has been found, DriveSavers will be the team working to bring that data back from the digital grave.

As bitcoin continues to climb in value, this lost hard drive is becoming one of the most expensive tech mistakes ever made—and one of the most watched recovery efforts in history.

Want the full story behind this high-tech treasure hunt? Read the original article from Popular Mechanics, featuring DriveSavers as the trusted experts tasked with recovering the bitcoin key that could be worth £1 billion.

Read the full Popular Mechanics article here.

From system crashes and accidental deletions to severe physical damage, DriveSavers can recover your assets—even in the most critical situations.