James Howells has been going on about this for a very long time now, i get it that we are talking about life changing money here, but the chances of recovering that funds is slim to none. I don't know if James would take any further action after this verdict, but in my opinion, i don't think he should, this whole case must be taking a toll on his mental health when he thinks about how rich he may have been, but the sooner he lets it rest, the better for him.

He's losing his mind

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-loses-fight-dig-up-30745248

and here is the judgment

https://www.11kbw.com/content/uploads/Howells-v-Newport.pdf

What can we learn from this? Don't lose your private key ! Make a copy of your private key or private keys. I have mine private keys both on paper and on CD in different locations. In case something happens to the computer that's only used for Bitcoin transactions nothing else.

We can't say that he didn't try, because a few years ago he offered a significant amount to the city council in case the HDD was found and they managed to save the coins. They refused because they probably believe that the operation itself is dangerous for the environment, and possibly that even if the HDD is found, no data could be saved.

As far as recycling is concerned, nowadays most of the old IT equipment from Europe ends up in countries of the Far East, but it is possible that 10+ years ago this was not the case. The HDD is somewhere deep under the piles of garbage (at least what's left of it).

The way he publicized all the information and the story all over the Internet does not help him either.  It looks like either he wants to be the main character of a heroic story or he is so delusional he does not realize how things might have changed against his favors.

Just like I said in a post before yours, if somebody did an independent search, it does not guarantee a success in the recovery of the funds!  In fact, if they did this and found the drive but had no idea how to recover the information off of it, what do you do?  Hire an expert and tell them the drive has been in the middle of a pile of garbage for years and should have Bitcoin on it?  Somebody who knows enough about Security and data recovery to get that Wallet out of it will likely also find out about the story this guy published every where.

But the condition of that drive is probably so low you will have to work with the same guys Government Agencies are working with, I imagine it is a highly complex operation the more damaged the drive is.  Then the chances you become the suspect of a Billion Dollar Crime become high!

So imagine this guy gets to even own the entire landfill and hire 1000 people to sort BY HAND every single thing that sits in that pile.  And they never find the drive.  It is completely useless effort for absolutely nothing!

He has a compelling goal to find the lost bitcoins. While this is virtually impossible. This has become the meaning of life for Howells, in pursuit of which he has spent a lot of his time and resources. And what is the result? Nothing. It was possible to use his time differently and more productively, admitting defeat and the loss of these bitcoins.

Sometimes should let go of the past in order to move into the future.

1st, still need to be able to find it, which is practically impossible. 2nd, need to be able to extract information from a damaged disk. These factors make the effort incomparably high, and the chances, negligible.

It seems to me that this story will become (has already become) one of the urban legends about early BTC-investors, which will continue to excite the minds of newbies about the fact that there is a bitcoins "treasure buried" in the dump, like the legendary buried treasures of pirates of old times.

It seems like he didnt place enough importance on his hard drives back in 2013
when the contents were not that valuable, now when they are worth so much he
regrets what happened.

At this stage it is not worth such an effort and disturbance of the site releasing
more toxins for something that may or may not be intact or achievable.

It really is unfortunate and from Howells point of view he can see his fortune under
waste but cannot retrieve it - it really is ^{or could be} "Buried treasure"

It is just a matter of taste. There are many people for them sorting garbage is not nasty work but interesting experience.
I would do such work for free, if I will get 0.1% of the treasure value (in case, it will be found and recovered).

It's just an idea, because he would have to find investors who are willing to buy a pile of waste, and then invest a bunch of money in searching for something that might not be in that place or has been destroyed to the point that nothing can be saved. Still, it seems like there are a lot of people/companies willing to enter into this venture - if for nothing else, then to gain public attention as modern treasure hunters.

However, the more time passes, the less likely it is that the data on the HDD will be usable - or we are all living in a delusion about that.

There's low chance for him to recover that and he's not sure if his drive still fine if he could able to get it that's why I understand the government decision not to grant his request since they will just waste their time finding those device that they don't even know if its really there. maybe James Howell need to move on and he just forget about lose balance since he cannot really do anything with it now. Although that's one big lose of opportunity to get rich but he cannot do anything now since everything is seems impossible especially for recovering it.

Maybe the court didn't find any weights of his claims regarding on his request to find his hard drive that's why they reject his request.

A matter of taste? And you would do it for free? LOL.

I hope you enjoy the smell and taste of many years old rotting garbage because that is what you would be smelling and tasting digging through the mountain of garbage for months on end for something with zero chance of being found, and useless even if it was. I hope you don't live with anyone because they would kick you out of the house with the unimaginable stench you would be bringing home every night, the kind of smell that is impossible to wash off. If the smell doesn't kill you the inherently dangerous work of manually sorting through a mountain of trash in an extremely toxic environment probably will.