Bitcoin Forum

Hi there!
I think my old computer has some BTC in it but it's an REALLY old computer (since 2009 I think),
what's the most useful - risk free way to check if I do have any bitcoins in it?
It wont start, I mean it does but crashes


hope for any kind of help!
Thanks<3

p.s if I can get the bitcoins from there i'll reward based on bitcoins in it





-- my current 2015 wallet address is 1JMyrc3LgbUntYRmPnJuMFTiS9z6ov3JP2

Move this thread to 'bitcoin technical support'. Scrow down, at the left side beside lock topic, you will see 'move topic'.

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The wallet as at then is bitcoin core, and it is nondeterminstic wallet, did you have a back up file of the wallet? Or you know the private keys to the addresses you used to receive the Bitcoin at the time?

If the computer can't start properly then the only way is to remove the hard drive and try to connect it to another computer and then search the entire drive for anything that might have something to do with Bitcoin. Of course, you can also seek the help of data recovery experts, but it's not cheap.


What is the purpose of posting your current BTC address? The final balance is 0, but the address received a total of more than 167 BTC...

I want to express is that there is no BTC in your wallet now，It doesn’t make any sense to turn on the computer.
if you need to be able to open your computer，you can find some skilled people to repair the computer.

You're probably looking at the wallet they included in their post. Op indicated that that is from a recent wallet and not the one which they are trying to recover from the computer.

Basically, bitcoins are not stored on the computer but rather on the wallet file (which would contain the private keys which controls the address), so fixing the computer is not as important rather they should retrieve the file from the hard drive.
Also, there's a risk if they allow a third party to handle their device as it puts them at risk.

Sounds like a hardware issue.

If the problem is with the OS at boot up, you can try running a Linux distribution on the flash drive and booting it up on there. You can probably search your common directories there for any signs of wallet files.

Depending on the kinds of wallet that you run, you can probably filter out files which are labelled wallet or ends with .dat or something similar. Doing it manually would suffice, I don't find a point in running a script to filter them.

In summary,
1. Look for the file "wallet.dat". Make a copy and keep it safe and do not share with anyone (in case it is not encrypted).
2. Install bitcoin core on a new computer. Replace the new wallet.dat with the recovered wallet.dat. Let it synch (or re-scan if already synched).

what is your operating system, and what is the error, if its a software maybe you can recover it but if it's a hard drive, it's like a 50/50 chance for you,
if it's just an operating system maybe it can, the bad thing is, that you need to update the os, I'm pretty sure its windows XP or Vista operating system, its like 1000 BTC try to ask for an update or fix in Microsoft they can do that but with a price.