Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

I stopped making bitcoins a while ago, but decided to hold on to what I had. Now my problem is I was unsure if my bitcoin would disappear if I formatted my computer, so I sent them to a transfer account for temporary storage. I hit the send BTC button by mistake and it sent my bitcoins to my old address.

So my question is can I get them back or are they gone for good?

Thanks for your responses?

Well, you need your original wallet.dat for that address, did you not back it up before formatting? You can still recover the wallet if you haven't installed anything on that hard drive. If you installed an operating system back on that hard drive it's likely gone (overwrites), and so is any chance of getting the coins back.

Next time backup your wallet to something regularly. I back mine up to my parity protected file server, and also a usb drive.

I'll also move this to tech support you'll get better answers there.

Wow thanks totally forgot I backed up my wallet ages ago on a usb drive... I found the usb how do I go about retrieving my lost coins now?

Backing up the wallet is the first thing people should do when they start using Bitcoin. This should be made clear. I usually put the wallet file into a rar archive and then I add a password to that file which is easy with WinRAR. Then I just put it in a couple of places, to a local usb drive and online.

BadBear is correct in this case however. The file can probably be recovered if the hard drive is still clean or has been lightly used. Otherwise there is a very slim chance of that.

Install the client on a machine. Do not start the client, instead find the folder where the wallet.dat file goes and place your backup there. You will see that there is no wallet.dat file there before yours. If you have started your client, it will have made a wallet.dat file that must be moved or deleted before placing your backup. Now start the client and let it update. There are your coins. :D

If the backup wallet from USB doesn't work (it'll depend on how many spare keys the wallet had when it was backed up vs. how many keys you've used since then), grab pywallet and set it to work on the old drive ASAP.

Hmm okay I installed the bitcoin client already and opened it, but I can not find the place for wallet.dat it is all wallet.ccp/wallet.h and such. Sorry I have not been into bitcoin for a while.

depends if windows or mac or gnu linux it is the directory where the blockchain is stored.
something like Application Data/Bitcoin.

you can find out by starting the bitcoin client once. it will create a new wallet. then search the copmuter for wallet.dat and replace it with your backup of your previous wallet.
the new bitcoin clients do a -rescan so your coins should appear if you have the private key / address in that wallet

Okay so I replaced my wallet but it says 0 BTC and 10.42 BTC unconfirmed, which is odd since I havnt used bitcoins in ages.

Edit:
Question will this wallet recieve the BTCs I just sent from my account?

only you know where you have the 'wrong' address from. If this is the wallet (check address book), then yes.
If not, search further. when did you send the coins away and can't you tell by the btc amount if this is the transaction you wait for?

Yes it is the same address, it just takes ages to update since the wallet has not been used in half a year and is now syncronizing with the network.

Thank you all for your help :D

then you're fine and as soon as you download the block with the transaction also confirmation count will start rising


you're welcome (speaking for all who replied to you :) )