Bitcoin Forum

My situation

Mac book pro crashed unexpectedly damaging the hard drive.  Apple tried to lift the data and place a new OS and then put my data back, that failed. They recommended data doctors. 

Data doctors can fully recover my data. I had just recently started using Multibit. I did not have the file backed up anywhere on the drive, however it should be there w the full data recovery. Once the new OS is installed can I do my transfer my data back to the new hard drive and open my Multibit wallet like nothing ever changed or is it gone forever

Any help or advice is much appreciated!

I haven't used multibit, but I imagine it's just like other wallets so you can put any wallet.dat file in and synch it up and your coins will still be there no problems. Always make sure to back up your wallets though.

Multibit uses the .wallet extension

Nonetheless, it's still a wallet file. If it can be successfully recovered, then you have your private keys and access to your coins =D
If you can't, well you're done for.

If they recover and find the wallet.dat file I`m sure it can be restored.

Dont give up!

OK so I'm picking up hard drive tmrw. They were able to transfer my entire hard drive to another drive. So I should be ok right?

Just open up the Multibit app and voila?? Or is it much more complicated than that after transnsferribg from original hard drive?

As long as you got the wallet file intact, your whole computer could be toast and you'd still have your stuff.
So essentially, yeah. Just run Multibit and hope for the best :)

Thank you! Will post an update soon!!!

OK so I got the external drive and laptop back. I can only find the multibit wallet as a .dmg file. I transferred it over and opened it up and it's showing a balance of 0. Anybody have any suggestions or ideas or am I shit out of luck?!?!

Thanks

Okay, as far as I know about Macs (I'm a Windows user, unfortunately), the DMG is just the actual Multibit program. I think what you did is just transfer the program over and it created a new set of data files and is thus showing a balance of 0 from them.
You need to retrieve the WALLET file that was created by Multibit, which I cannot really help you with because I don't use that program or that OS.

Your looking for the wallet.dat not dmg.file so look that up, and you should be fine?

If not ask the multibit support to do this, which shouldnt be any further issue.

Wallet.dat is a Bitcoin Core wallet file name, not Multibit :P

OK so following multibit instructions, I was able to find files such as multibit.wallet......I was unable to find a   .dat. File.

I transferred over the   .wallet file but when I go to open it, says "there is no application set to open the document multibit.wallet.



Suggestions?

Thanks a million

Wait what the heck.. you found the file, but its not doing anything?

Okay, first of all, make a million copies of the multibit.wallet file. It contains your private keys, DON'T LOSE THAT FILE.
The .wallet file is not an executable by itself, you have to put it in the data directory of where Multibit stores its wallet, and then start the .DMG for Multibit.

"wallet.dat" is the default name for wallet file of bitcoin-qt.
".wallet" is the default name for wallet file of multibit.

So, it is perfectly fine.


Are you using multibit to load the wallet file? It seems to me that you are trying to open the file directly.

Yea i was trying to open the file directly, duh....im trying to find how to show the multibit directory, so I can place the files from the external drive onto it. I can't figure out how to access the hidden files. Im running 10.9 maverick.

Now I'm kind of thinking I was hacked as I've gone to open wallet and opened the file that I transferred over and still showing a balance of 0 :-(

Ahhhh fucking victory!!!!!! It finally worked

Congrats! the wallet files are very very important, data is money  :)

Congrats, man!
Actually, this is a great lesson for everybody. On how to save coins over time.

Congrats on getting your coins back!

Just curious how much coins was this?

Also, if you can break down the steps of what you did for new multi bit users - that would be extremely helpful since you already had your 1st hand experience.

Grats on getting your coins back :)
Hope you will know to make more backups in the future =D

Good to hear that.
I hope you have made a few encrypted backups now and put them in separate place, such as your laptop, PC, USB, dropbox, etc. :D

Is it a good idea to store crypto money in several different places at the same time?
To diversify the risk if you plan to store them for years. :)