Bitcoin Forum

I want to get rid of an old computer, but I checked it for bitcoins, because I knew I tried to mine this in the past.
The only thing I still have is this:

https://snag.gy/YjCtkI.jpg

It include a  wallet.dat file and some other files


I wonder what I safely do to access this
Anyone an Idea where I can find instructions what to do?
And anyone knows where all these files are for?

First make a backup of all .dat files and then install bitcoin core. Once it is installed open it once and close it.
Copy your wallet.dat file in this folder
C:\Users\YourUserName\Appdata\Roaming\BitCoin

and run bitcoin core again. Once it is fully synced you will be able to check your coins and transactions.

Bitcoin core download link:
https://bitcoin.org/en/download

wallet.dat can be of a ton of coins. Litecoin also uses wallet.dat. I once found a wallet.dat file lying around some DVD, I thought "great, a lost BTC wallet", but then I was confused because it didn't work. Well it turned out that it was a Litecoin wallet.dat file.

I don't know if there is a way to know of what coin the wallet.dat file is from, that would be handy to know, because right now I can do nothing but randomly try around with all the altcoins that I ever held.

According to his pic wallet.dat is from 19 June 2011 and litecoin was introduced in oct 2011 however it can be "swiftcoin" but I doubt.
OP you should try installing bitcoin first.

OP, which folder did you find these files in? wallet.dat is the general wallet file for nearly all core/qt wallets. It can be a random altcoin or Bitcoin, also. Do you remember if you added a password? If so, do you remember the password? That is an issue entirely even after you manage to import the wallet.dat file to your core/qt wallet.

thank you all for such a fast reply

I gonna look in all to it and let you know what I found  ;D

download latest version of Bitcoin Core: 0.14.2 then wait for network fully synchronized after that update wallet.dat in app folder , question is did you use password to encrypt wallet.dat ? do you remember it ?

I probably was not clear about it. But I am for sure it was bitcoin  :)

it's actually takes sometime to get fully sync on bitcoin core tho. let's wait and see how many he actually had soon

Any update OP? we are really excited to see if you got something there, c'mon we really wanna see it. I remember, I also found a wallet.dat file from a old laptop, but unfortunately, it has 0 btc. LOL. I get excited, can't sleep and waiting for 4 days for bitcoin core to fully sync but unfortunately the owners didn't left anything for me.  ;D


I know, I think the quickest could be 3 days, in my case in took for 4 days to fully download and sync everything. Its the 3 day now as of my timezone so I'm guessing it should be almost done by now.

Once it syncs past 2011 you should be good and see if the wallet has anything.

Can't you just look at the receiving addresses before it syncs and tell if there are some BTC?.

You could have mined many bitcoins in 2011. Nice treasure hunt you are on!

Make sure you use a secure computer, create a backup and reclaim your bitcoins. Did you know you also have Bitcoin Cash if you have old Bitcoins?
OP, are you a millionaire now?

I also had an older computer with Bitcoin from 2013 ( maybe 2011). I have updated to BC 14 and run it until its current. I found dat file from 2013 backup ( had 80mb of data) and created a file from this thread to put it in. Restarted Bitcoin.  I can't find that anything transferred of that the dat file was read.  Can someone walk me thru this please ?  THank you

Before you dump that machine, take an image of that operating system, in this way it is safer to get the exact clone copy of that old machine.

Search in a google to find a good disk imaging software, such as Symantec Ghost Solution Suite, etc... then later you can test those dat files on bitcoin core software at any point of time once you get any recovery solution from anyone.

Did you succeed in retrieving them?

As per my experience what i have seen in the pic is the files which are resembling to other crypto currency and not the Bitcoin so better you can also check with other coin wallet which were their on that time.

backup yur wallet.dat and trying bitcoin core and then replace the wallet.dat to bitcoincore directory

treasure hunt ::)