Personal Announcement: @barge is LOCKED UP, Or How I lost Access to My Main Account

This is a difficult post, one I hoped never to have to write. I wish it on nobody. It's a tale of disaster, the materialisation of a real-life horror story.

I am the person behind the @barge account and I have lost access to it.

This is how it happened:

Background to Disaster: Yesterday, 1st October, I finally decided to change my passwords and also the recovery account for @barge - which was set to 'Steem'.

First of all, I did this for the half-a-dozen or so accounts that I manage for friends and family, including this one (@krunkypuram). I used the PEAKD interface for making these changes - it is easy and straighforward. On two or three occasions, after saving the text file containing the newly changed passwords, and after clicking on 'update passwords', I got a message saying the the changes had not gone through and that the old passwords were still valid. On these occasions this turned out to be the case and I simply repeated the process which then went through.

Disaster: I left @barge for last.

I had the Master password for @barge. I was able to use this to generate the Owner password - which is required for changing passwords and recovery accounts. I used this owner password to change the recovery account to @nutraj (an alt I don't use).

So far so good.

However, I didn't save the owner password and I didn't have it saved or written down beforehand, just the Master, Posting, Active and Memo passwords.

Next I go to change the passwords with the Owner key copied to the clipboard. I save the text document with the newly generated passwords and I then hit 'Update Passwords'.

This is where things got fucked up.

After hitting 'Update Passwords', I got a message along the lines of'passwords not changed, old passwords still valid' (as mentioned above in relation to the other accounts). *I got this message three times in a row, each sequence generating a new set of passwords. Each time I binned the old text file and saved the new one.

After the third time however, I deleted the text file (which had been saved like the other ones) right after getting this message. I felt safe in doing that because each time the keys had been successfully changed for the other accounts peakd reverted to the homepage and I had to log back in. With the @barge account, the peakd homepage had not launched. After this having happened twice with @barge (and 2-3 times in total with the other accounts), I felt comfortable that the keys had not been changed and that I would get back in, just like before.

I found out later that the nodes had been playing up around this time. I guess it may have been hiccups in the network that I ignored to my peril. I was tired and had become careless and complacent at critical moments.

Anyhow, after this point I have been unable to do anything on the @barge account. Instead of accepting the Owner password (which was in clipboard) to allow me to proceed with generating a new set of keys, I was asked to log back into @barge instead. To my horror, I found that the keys saved in Keychain didn't work. I tried the master password (thereby removing Owner from clipboard), but that didn't work either.

The keys had been updated in the last round of password changes after all! I had deleted the text file containing them.

I had been saving the text files to a second physical harddrive, distinct from the one the operating system is installed on. I deleted the files by dragging them to the recycle bin. When I opened up the recycle bin it did not however contain them.

The first thing I did was a bit of research on recovery software. My mind was speeding up at this point. I downloaded EaseUS Recovery Wizard which after a scan actually returned the three deleted text files containing my passwords in the $Recycler folder. I calmed down a bit. Thing is, I couldn't recover the files without purchasing the software! Knowing what I do now, I would've spent the $69 on buying a license and recovering the files pronto.

^{very first scan with EaseUS trial version which found the files in $RECYCLER}

But I didn't! Instead, knowing I didn't have enough to cover the cost anyway, I downloaded a cracked version of EaseUS via torrents various other data recovery apps from different websites. The cracked version didn't work and none of the other scans returned the same result as the initial EaseUS scan (see screenshot above).

Worse still, I reinstalled an 'uncracked' trial version of EaseUS and ran several scans but it no longer found the files in the location it previously had. Other files found at the time were displayed with the identical time stamp (the desktop.ini files in the screenshot above), confirming it seemed, that the password text files were no longer to be found for recovery.

Shit and Fuck! My head was spinning by this point as the sinking feeling got heavier and heavier. I couldn't concentrate on simple tasks like starting another scan. I had to go and lie down. Flame came over for a cuddle, concern all over her doggy features. I regained composure after a period.

The Current Situation:

• @barge's recovery account is set to @nutraj. This was done just a few minutes before the password change took place
• I do not have in my possession the *old OWNER password for @barge. I do have the old MASTER password
• The way I understand it, in order to initiate an account recovery I would have to obtain the old OWNER password - this has to be one that has been used within the past 30 days
• I found an excellent post on recovering an account written by @abitcoinskeptic, which refers to Steemworld, (but we now have Hiveworld)
• If I am able to obtain the old Owner p/w I should be able to initiate an account recovery
• It seems like this is the only sliver of hope left**: a 4-6 minute window in which to (1) obtain the old Owner p/w using the old Master p/w (2) initiate the account recovery.

Troubleshooting so far: I realise now that the reason the text files appeared in the first (trial version of EaseUS) scan and not in subsequent scans was that they had most likely been over-written by data I had downloaded. Damn!

I ran around 10 scans using different software - trial and freeware, including deep scans of all drives. The text files do not appear in any of them and never have since the initial scan shown in the screenshot above.

I posted my tale of woe in PeakD support, including a screenshot of the first scan showing the text files for recovery. @asgarth kindly took the time to respond - see conversation below - and concluded by suggesting I ask this in the Official Hive Discord server. This I intend to do once this post goes live so I have it as a point of reference.

Personal Impact: Yesterday was traumatic. I was white as a sheet and very upset. At night, with deep scans running on the PC, I ran scans on my feelings and processed the more turbulent ones. I realised how this situation came about as a result of carelessness on my part combined with bad timing (Full Moon influence on the nodes? :). There were a number of points of failure: no old Owner key which would make account recovery very possible in even a 4 minute window; all-round complacency with saving these vital keys; ignorance of the susceptibility of deleted files to be easily overwritten by downloads etc.

I take and have taken, responsibility for my actions and lack of care.

This morning I awoke lighter, sun shining. I may have lost access to the funds in my account (8k Hive + various Hive Engine tokens, including moon-bound LEO :). I may have lost most the network that built up around @barge over the course of three years. However, I do still have the creative output from @barge and I have the @krunkypuram account with around 2k Hive and some HE tokens, including LEO.

I've not been left destitute, but the experience is bound to alter something inside. I've lost an identity to some extent, and will now be building up another. It may take a while to re-establish contacts and make new ones. Once @krunkypuram has some momentum behind it and I start filling this account, things will feel different I'm sure.

A simple triple-headed message came to me during last night's meditation, when processing the experience outlined in this post: "This is a time where old labels, definitions and identities are being stripped away. Crisis is also opportunity for change and growth. What is born out of the old is always more expanded than what went before."

There is pain - a gnawing feeling of loss. I am mitigating the suffering by expressing myself here and, where possible, asking for help; by not wallowing in the pain, lost in tortured fantasies of altering the past.

On the walk with Flame this morning we came across a cat and a squirrel sitting peacefully side-by-side in a little patch of fenced-in garden. The squirrel was unafraid and the cat was calm and still, staring at Flame. After digging and sniffing around near the cat for a few minutes, the squirrel scurried off. Extraordinary! A sign or symbol for me of peace and acceptance. I threw down some frisbees for Flame in Leith Links and did some yoga stretches, enjoying the feel of grass and sun.

I have had a fair share of gut-wrenchers in my life. This is by no means the worst, but the wound is very fresh and it still hurrrrrrrrrrrts.

I am using this post to outline the issue in detail for any technical support or help I may get. I also would like to spread the word, so that people who have an interest in the @barge account know that I will - BAR _ge a miracle - be using @krunkypuram as my main account from here onwards. I will be spamming my current @barge posts, and maybe a few others, with comments pointing to this post - perhaps you're here as a result :)

Thanks for visiting; for your attention and empathy 🙏.
It's a situation I think everyone on the blockchain can realate to in some way or another!