Bitcoin Forum

Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: chogath on July 08, 2014, 05:12:18 PM



Title: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: chogath on July 08, 2014, 05:12:18 PM
Hi, I`m pretty new here.

And I search enough on this forum, so any person who went through this process I`d appreciate your input.

I`m using btc-qt wallet and lets say my computer crashed or whatever reason and I had the wallet.dat file.

Whats the next step to retrieve my balance? Is there a youtube link on this, cause I`m more of a visual learner.


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: roslinpl on July 08, 2014, 06:00:10 PM
Hi, I`m pretty new here.

And I search enough on this forum, so any person who went through this process I`d appreciate your input.

I`m using btc-qt wallet and lets say my computer crashed or whatever reason and I had the wallet.dat file.

Whats the next step to retrieve my balance? Is there a youtube link on this, cause I`m more of a visual learner.

Well I can tell you that there is Bitcoin Core Guide that I created @Bitcoin Online Embassy.

You can visit www.btc-embassy.com   and find a cube marked as "BTC Embassy Guides"   there is a guide where you will learn about how to use your wallet.

Ps. I hope that when you say qt  you mean Core :)  as Bitcoin Core is the right name for new official Bitcoin Client. Newest version : 0.9.2.1.   From 0.9.0  it is called "Core".


Online Embassy guide provide 90 screens with text to read about. You will learn how to make a backup with no prob and not only this one. Have a look over there.  

You can find official Bitcoin Embassy Thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=612291.0


A quick answer to your question:


If you want to retrieve your balance from a wallet.dat file you just need to download and run Bitoin Core - then main data directories for Bitcoin Core are created. Close Bitcoin Core.Copy your "backup" (wallet.dat) into Bitcoin Core data folder.

Windows XP default:C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application data\Bitcoin
Windows 7 default: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin
Linux : ~/.bitcoin/
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/

Just copy your backuped wallet.dat file over there and run Bitcoin Core. That's it.
There will be a wallet.dat file already created (after your 1st run) - so you just need to replace it with your old backuped file.

And remember that you can store your backups with any name for the file, like something.dat - but when you copy this file into Bitcoin directory you need to name it wallet.dat.


:)

Regards.


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: chogath on July 08, 2014, 06:21:45 PM
Hi, I`m pretty new here.

And I search enough on this forum, so any person who went through this process I`d appreciate your input.

I`m using btc-qt wallet and lets say my computer crashed or whatever reason and I had the wallet.dat file.

Whats the next step to retrieve my balance? Is there a youtube link on this, cause I`m more of a visual learner.

Well I can tell you that there is Bitcoin Core Guide that I created @Bitcoin Online Embassy.

You can visit www.btc-embassy.com   and find a cube marked as "BTC Embassy Guides"   there is a guide where you will learn about how to use your wallet.

Ps. I hope that when you say qt  you mean Core :)  as Bitcoin Core is the right name for new official Bitcoin Client. Newest version : 0.9.2.1.   From 0.9.0  it is called "Core".


Online Embassy guide provide 90 screens with text to read about. You will learn how to make a backup with no prob and not only this one. Have a look over there.  

You can find official Bitcoin Embassy Thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=612291.0


A quick answer to your question:


If you want to retrieve your balance from a wallet.dat file you just need to download and run Bitoin Core - then main data directories for Bitcoin Core are created. Close Bitcoin Core.Copy your "backup" (wallet.dat) into Bitcoin Core data folder.

Windows XP default:C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application data\Bitcoin
Windows 7 default: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin
Linux : ~/.bitcoin/
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/

Just copy your backuped wallet.dat file over there and run Bitcoin Core. That's it.
There will be a wallet.dat file already created (after your 1st run) - so you just need to replace it with your old backuped file.

And remember that you can store your backups with any name for the file, like something.dat - but when you copy this file into Bitcoin directory you need to name it wallet.dat.


:)

Regards.

1. Download client again btc-qt
2. So just drop the back up copy, where the other wallet.dat is and i`m good.
3. Re-name it to upload the balance.

Thanks!  :)


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: roslinpl on July 08, 2014, 06:24:40 PM

1. Download client again btc-qt
2. So just drop the back up copy, where the other wallet.dat is and i`m good.
3. Re-name it to upload the balance.

Thanks!  :)

4. And wait till your wallet will synchronize to use your coins :)

That's it indeed :P

You're welcome :)

Kind regards.


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: Velkro on July 08, 2014, 08:35:58 PM
Use guide how to import your private keys for example from here http://bitcoinvanitygen.com/bitcoinvanityaddress.php section: How to import a Private Key into a Wallet?


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: ALToids on July 08, 2014, 09:32:28 PM
If you upload you wallet.dat file to cloud storage like Dropbox, consider renaming it to something more secretive like pictures.dat or even contacts.txt so people are less likely to grab your wallet and try to brute force attack it.


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: Dannie on July 09, 2014, 10:45:43 AM
If you upload you wallet.dat file to cloud storage like Dropbox, consider renaming it to something more secretive like pictures.dat or even contacts.txt so people are less likely to grab your wallet and try to brute force attack it.

Or you may further encrypt your wallet.dat file using winrar or 7zip. :)


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: Falcon98 on July 12, 2014, 07:50:23 PM
You can just make a dropbox account and just backup your wallet.dat file there!  :)


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: roslinpl on July 12, 2014, 10:15:22 PM
You can just make a dropbox account and just backup your wallet.dat file there!  :)


Well just remember if you want to do it ... that this data is online then, so better set a strong password to your backup:) 30 chars, special chars, upper, digits etc... and NEVER store your password in a plain TXT file !!! PLEASE!.


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: ranochigo on July 13, 2014, 01:45:32 AM
You can just make a dropbox account and just backup your wallet.dat file there!  :)
There is still a noticeable amount of security risk there. If dropbox gets hacked, your wallet would also be hacked. If you cannot remember the password, your wallet.dat would be lost forever.


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: notlist3d on July 13, 2014, 05:10:37 AM
You can just make a dropbox account and just backup your wallet.dat file there!  :)
There is still a noticeable amount of security risk there. If dropbox gets hacked, your wallet would also be hacked. If you cannot remember the password, your wallet.dat would be lost forever.

No mater what encrypt it.


Title: Re: Tutorial help on backing up wallet.dat??
Post by: Pkofet on July 13, 2014, 06:04:21 AM
You can just make a dropbox account and just backup your wallet.dat file there!  :)
There is still a noticeable amount of security risk there. If dropbox gets hacked, your wallet would also be hacked. If you cannot remember the password, your wallet.dat would be lost forever.

No mater what encrypt it.

Exactly. Just use software like winrar, 7-zip, truecrypt, GPG, etc, to encrypt the file with a good password before uploading it to your email account or dropbox.