Bitcoin Forum

Hi all, I know this has probably been asked before and I've looked at a few answers but I'm pretty confused and the number of posts is extensive.
I only use my bitcoins very occasionally and some months ago I tried to sync my wallet and got a message basically saying my software version was too old and I needed to upgrade. So I backed up my wallet (or at least I thought I did) and installed version 0.10. Unfortunately, after that my laptop started giving me a lot of grief. It kept crashing after very short periods of use and this has distracted me from the bitcoin issue. I seem to have gotten it stable now and have turned my attention back to the bitcoin / wallet issue.
As I said I installed version 0.10 in c:\program files\bitcoin. My user data is in c:\windows\users\username\appdata\bitcoin. I have renamed the wallet.dat file and copied in my backed up wallet to the user data location.
When I run the program the number bitcoins displayed is 0 and it reports that I am 6 years and some months behind. The last time I had a successful sync was about 6 months ago and my wallet should contain a number of bitcoins. So,
Does this mean I am using the wrong wallet?
Does it mean I need to copy other files from my previous version (which ones)?
If it is the wrong wallet, will an older backup be any good?
Overall what are my options, if any?
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

You are fine. It is either resyncing or reindexing. If you deleted the data directory at any time when you upgraded it, then you will need to do a full resync. If bitcoin core was open when the computer crashed, the databases could have gotten corrupted which would prompt a reindex of the database. Just wait for the bar to disappear, which can take a few hours to a few days depending on your computer. In that time, the bitcoin should show up. If you find that it is done syncing (green check mark in the corner and the green bar disappears) and that your balance is still incorrect, then your wallet is messed up.

BTW, you should have upgraded to the latest version 0.11.1.

+1

So long as your new core client is pulling up the same bitcoin addresses that your previous version contained you should be seeing your balance once the blockchain resync catches up to the actual transactions you've made to and from the old address.

Thanks guys.
I'll be taking the advice and upgrading to 0.11.1 before I try the sync again.
Appreciate the advice. Hopefully the sync will be successful and I won't have to come back for more advice.

Tezjm.