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Title: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 17, 2013, 06:19:30 AM Hello,
Back in April, I was given a small amount of bitcoin as a gift. I got myself a wallet at blockchain.info, and set up the Bitcoin Qt wallet on my computer. I experimented with sending bitcoin by sending some to myself, and I can see this transaction when I log in to blockchain.info. Here's my question: I left my bitcoin alone for several months, and now I'm using Multibit instead of Bitcoin Qt. Multibit only shows the pittance I left behind when I made the experimental transfer, which shows up on blockchain.info as "unspent output". How can I get this "unspent output" back into my wallet? Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: torusJKL on November 17, 2013, 06:26:02 AM The easiest way would be to send you the Bitcoins you see in Bitcoin-Qt to an address you got from you new Multibit wallet.
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: beetcoin on November 17, 2013, 06:31:48 AM Hello, Back in April, I was given a small amount of bitcoin as a gift. I got myself a wallet at blockchain.info, and set up the Bitcoin Qt wallet on my computer. I experimented with sending bitcoin by sending some to myself, and I can see this transaction when I log in to blockchain.info. Here's my question: I left my bitcoin alone for several months, and now I'm using Multibit instead of Bitcoin Qt. Multibit only shows the pittance I left behind when I made the experimental transfer, which shows up on blockchain.info as "unspent output". How can I get this "unspent output" back into my wallet? the question is, do you still have your wallet.dat from the bitcoin QT client? i hope you didn't change computers for reformat. if you don't have that, the seed, or the private key.. then you are assed out sorry to say. Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: Rupture on November 17, 2013, 06:46:46 AM As long as you still have the wallet.dat you're good
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 17, 2013, 02:53:11 PM The reason I switched to MultiBit is because I got a new computer. I'd actually forgotten about the bitcoin because it was static. I've got my Qt login, but never exported the .dat file. :-( Guess I'm screwed. Funny because I'm really good about doing backups, generally speaking. I just never thought to back up the wallet because I guess I never realized I couldn't just log in with my identifying info and access the bitcoin. I'm lucky it wasn't a large amount of money.
What was truly astounding to me, however, when I logged on yesterday to get back up to speed with bitcoin, was that the value of what I'd been given had quadrupled! So even though I lost basically everything, I'm going to start over, and this time I know to back up the wallet. Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: MahaRamana on November 17, 2013, 03:15:58 PM like a real wallet full of cash, you have to remain aware of it or it gets lost or stolen...
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: rednazbtc on November 17, 2013, 03:18:13 PM It's lost.
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: Johanna on November 17, 2013, 03:19:09 PM The reason I switched to MultiBit is because I got a new computer. I'd actually forgotten about the bitcoin because it was static. I've got my Qt login, but never exported the .dat file. :-( Guess I'm screwed. Funny because I'm really good about doing backups, generally speaking. I just never thought to back up the wallet because I guess I never realized I couldn't just log in with my identifying info and access the bitcoin. I'm lucky it wasn't a large amount of money. What was truly astounding to me, however, when I logged on yesterday to get back up to speed with bitcoin, was that the value of what I'd been given had quadrupled! So even though I lost basically everything, I'm going to start over, and this time I know to back up the wallet. If you didn't backup your wallet.dat file you are doomed. Your wallet is gone.... Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: coqui33 on November 17, 2013, 03:23:23 PM To avoid similar future loss, read topic "4.1 Security" in Getting Started With Bitcoins (http://backintyme.com/btc01.php).
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 17, 2013, 04:06:07 PM Thank you cocqui 33, I have added that link to my Evernote for permanent reference.
OK, so I have a follow on question: when bitcoin gets lost like that, or when it gets seized by a government, as recently happened in the news, like this: https://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX (https://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX), what happens to it in the long run? Is it forever out of circulation? Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: coqui33 on November 17, 2013, 06:22:21 PM when bitcoin gets lost like that, or when it gets seized by a government, as recently happened in the news, like this... what happens to it in the long run? Is it forever out of circulation? If no one can find the private key, the coins are lost forever. If the FBI knows the private key, it is up to the agency whether or when to spend them or exchange them for dollars.Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: co5hike on November 17, 2013, 06:31:10 PM Thank you cocqui 33, I have added that link to my Evernote for permanent reference. OK, so I have a follow on question: when bitcoin gets lost like that, or when it gets seized by a government, as recently happened in the news, like this: https://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX (https://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX), what happens to it in the long run? Is it forever out of circulation? It is forever out of circulation only when someone loose private key (access to the Bitcoin addresses) Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 19, 2013, 05:16:18 AM Thank you for explaining this.
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 21, 2013, 02:20:57 AM Hello again,
I may have great news, but I need your help to figure it out. I had a brain fart before - I didn't delete the user account on my old computer, but I /did/ uninstall most of the programs (including Bitcoin Qt), and lowered the user privileges. I haven't accessed the user in a couple of months (which is why I thought I'd deleted it), so most of the stuff I uninstalled is pretty intact, I think. I reinstated Admin privileges and ran Recuva, which found 21 .dat files. None of the .dat files are identified as a wallet, so I don't know if they're useful. Do I have a chance of claiming my lost bitcoins, or are these dat files going to be useless? How do I figure it out? Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: sgravina on November 21, 2013, 02:29:46 AM Hello again, I may have great news, but I need your help to figure it out. I had a brain fart before - I didn't delete the user account on my old computer, but I /did/ uninstall most of the programs (including Bitcoin Qt), and lowered the user privileges. I haven't accessed the user in a couple of months (which is why I thought I'd deleted it), so most of the stuff I uninstalled is pretty intact, I think. I reinstated Admin privileges and ran Recuva, which found 21 .dat files. None of the .dat files are identified as a wallet, so I don't know if they're useful. Do I have a chance of claiming my lost bitcoins, or are these dat files going to be useless? How do I figure it out? If you ran Windows 7 then your wallet file is: "C:\Users\YourUserName\Appdata\Roaming\Bitcoin\wallet.dat" If you ran Mac OS then your file is: "DiskName/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/wallet.dat" Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: Stinky_Pete on November 21, 2013, 02:32:27 AM In Windows \Appdata\ is hidden by defult.
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 21, 2013, 02:45:01 AM It was there!!!!! ;D ;D ;D How do it get it into Multibit????
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: Mondy on November 21, 2013, 02:59:24 AM There should be an option to import a wallet.dat (backup) file. maybe?
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: jojo69 on November 21, 2013, 03:03:15 AM that makes 5 lost wallet threads today by my count
glad it is looking like this is a happy one Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 21, 2013, 03:19:53 AM The import options are .key .json and .aes.json
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 21, 2013, 03:44:42 AM I think this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=189628.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=189628.0) answers my question. Working on it...
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 21, 2013, 05:15:25 AM No luck with using BtToMt as per previous post.
I've copied and pasted the old wallet.dat into the same location on my new computer as I found it on the old computer. Bitcoin Qt does not show my info, and I see no option to import anything (I've saved a 2nd copy on my desktop and have yet another copy on a flash drive - don't want to lose this puppy again!). I must be missing something, but don't know what it is... edit OK. Wait. What I did today, was in my initial recovery attempt, before I knew to look in AppData, I reinstalled Bitcoin Qt. I think I screwed myself with that. That's why the wallet looks empty - because it is. Is there a way to recover the file that was there before I reinstalled Bitcoin Qt? How bad is my karma if I messed myself up moments before retrieving the file I needed..... :'( Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: sbwfaqo on November 21, 2013, 06:11:07 AM newbie :)
Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: DrG on November 21, 2013, 08:51:17 AM 1) Stop using the drive with the wallet.dat file as an OS drive
2) Place said drive into another PC 3) Run a program to find deleted files (I use File Scavenger - worth buying if you're talking about a few BTC) 4) If you are able to find an older version of wallet.dat then you have some hope. Backup that file onto 2 USB drives 5) Install new Bitcoin-qt client onto a PC and let it run for a minute, just long enough to finish installing and creating a new wallet.dat file 6) Replace that new wallet.dat file with your backup from one of the 2 USB drives (again under App Data) 6) Resync and cross your fingers Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: spoonbender on November 22, 2013, 03:36:40 PM newbie :) Thanks for being gentle. I was thinking more like "dumb a$$".1) Stop using the drive with the wallet.dat file as an OS drive I couldn't put the drive into another PC, but I did run File Scavenger. It was only able to find the same 88kb file (compared to a freshly-installed file size of 80kb) that I already had found and used to replace my Qt wallet, so I didn't buy it to access that file. At this point the only remaining question is why the wallet's file size is 8kb larger than a freshly-installed wallet, but the wallet appears empty - nothing. Not even my original address, which I would think would show up. If anybody has an explanation for that, I'm curious, but I think that bitcoin is gone for good... :'( Ah, well, live and learn - I don't tend to make the same mistakes twice...2) Place said drive into another PC 3) Run a program to find deleted files (I use File Scavenger - worth buying if you're talking about a few BTC) 4) If you are able to find an older version of wallet.dat then you have some hope. Backup that file onto 2 USB drives 5) Install new Bitcoin-qt client onto a PC and let it run for a minute, just long enough to finish installing and creating a new wallet.dat file 6) Replace that new wallet.dat file with your backup from one of the 2 USB drives (again under App Data) 6) Resync and cross your fingers Title: Re: six months later and I'm lost Post by: bitcoinminer11794591 on November 22, 2013, 04:17:37 PM :( i nearly lost all my BTC... I installed Multi-bit and then deleted it... I reinstalled it and somehow managed to restore the .dat file. Now i'm definitely going to be careful
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