Bitcoin Forum

My mac system disk is failing.  I started setting up a new system on a new HD and did a fresh install of the Bitcoin client.  Meanwhile I took the sys HD in question to a laptop.  This laptop also has a Bitcoin client installed on the system disk.  I mounted the bad disk and tried to open the client.  However, I don't see the balance which resided on that HD.  I see the balance on the Bitcoin client which was already installed on the laptop HD.  Any suggestions on retrieving my Bitcoins?  :(

I suggest you retrieve and backup the wallet.dat file from your failing disk before doing any more testing,  before it's too late for doing so.
With that only file, you will be able to recover all your btc on a new install later on.

Let's take this in parts.

1- You have 2 wallet.dat files. 1 on the old HDD and 1 on the new HDD
2- Backup those 2 files. For convenience name the backups wallet1.dat and wallet2.dat
3- Fire up your new system, navigate to your bitcoin data dir (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory#Default_Location) and copy wallet1.dat there. Rename it to wallet.dat
4- Start your bitcoin client with the -rescan flag from the command line (bitcoin -rescan).
5- Wait for it to finish rescanning and you should see the coins on wallet1.dat.
6- Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 for wallet2.dat :)

I risked starting off the bad sys HD and I was able to send my balance to my new client on the good HD.  However...that was last night...and the transaction still hasn't posted on the receiving end.  :(

Assuming your new client has downloaded all of the block chain, this probably means you sent the old balance, then quit the old client before it had a chance to communicate the transaction to the network. Maybe it had no peers at the time.

Make sure you have a backup of your wallets, then start up the bad sys HD and fire up the old client again until you have some connections and the transaction gets sent. Alternatively/additionally, start off the bad sys HD and take a copy of the wallet.dat file from it.

And, as stated before, back up the wallet.dat file before doing anything else. That file has your bitcoins in it. As long as you have that file, you have a solvable problem. (assuming it is not encrypted) Loose that file and you do not have any chance of recovery.

The wallet is encrypted.  That's good security right???  Soooooo no retrieving the wallet.dat?

I'm trying to reboot off the bad sys disk again to run the client.  But I still need to copy mucho data off this disk.  I'd rather NOT use it and get the data off.  :(

If anyone had recommendations on preserving bad HDs to retrieve data...drop those tips in here as well...  ;)

I'm running the client on the bad HD.  It says I have 8 connections currently.  Still, it continues to show a "?" next to the transaction from last night.

It may need to be re-broadcast. Wait a while.

The transaction still shows "?" on the send side.  But it doesn't matter anymore because the receiving wallet has gotten the funds.  Thanks for your help guys!   ;D

This.

I hope you are smart enough to back up your wallet?

Otherwise, tuff shit bro.  Lesson learned.