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Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: max in montreal on May 29, 2011, 01:58:48 PM



Title: wallet.dat
Post by: max in montreal on May 29, 2011, 01:58:48 PM
I am just starting out and have a question about wallets. I had to reformat reinstall windows. I forgot to back up my wallet.dat and because of the format it was lost. There was less than 1 bitcoin in there, but I am curious if the information is still on the network. If I reinstall the program, and type in my old key, will i get the coins back, or will this just bring me the new coins?


Title: Re: wallet.dat
Post by: Jason Keith on May 29, 2011, 02:06:24 PM
It's gone. The wallet is the money as far as you're concerned.


Title: Re: wallet.dat
Post by: max in montreal on May 29, 2011, 02:07:19 PM
ok, doing data recovery to see if i can get the dat file back.

thanks for the quick reply.

Max


Title: Re: wallet.dat
Post by: mewantsbitcoins on May 29, 2011, 02:08:13 PM
The short answer is no.

The longer answer is all transactions are stored on the network, but you can only claim ownership of your coins if you posses the private key which is stored in your wallet.dat.

In general these coins are lost forever unless you use data recovery service/tools.


Title: Re: wallet.dat
Post by: bitlotto on May 29, 2011, 02:25:09 PM
Sorry for your loss! Hopefully some data recovery tools will find it somewhere. At least it wasn't too much. Hopefully you don't have to visit the https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=7253.0 thread.