I don't see any addresses.

Here's exactly how I stored the wallet.dat file on my flash drive:
In the Bitcoin-qt client (at this time I had a balance of bitcoin showing) I clicked ->File ->Backup Wallet. In the window that popped up, I saved the file as "CHEESE.dat" onto my removable disk. Are there any possibilities that the file on the removable disk, doesn't contain the same balance that was seen when had the Bitcoin-qt client open?


EDIT: I got a balance but must have created a new address after I stored the backup wallet because I am missing 3 BTC

Thanks for all the help!

Uh-oh. In that case, I think I may have made a terrible mistake. The following will be my attempt to accurately illustrate my actions since purchasing my first few BTC earlier this year.

After buying about 5 BTC from localbitcoin.com, I borrowed a laptop in order to make my own wallet and store it on a flash drive, since I don't own a computer. The bitcoin-qt client was downloaded to the laptop, synced, and I sent my BTC to that wallet. Then I copied the qt client to my flash drive,  'backed up' the wallet.dat file - saved it in another folder on the same flash drive and named it "CHEESE.dat" (don't ask why). Please note that I didn't know about any info stored inside of %appdata% - or that it even existed (which is stupid of me if you look at my post history). I haven't made any transactions since that time. That laptop I borrowed has since been returned and wiped.

In summary, I have the bitcoin-qt client along with my CHEESE.dat file on a flash drive, and I have synced the qt client on other computers and tried replacing the wallet in %appdata% with my CHEESE.dat file (I renamed it wallet.dat once I moved it into %appdata%) - still 0 BTC. Is there any hope to recover the lost BTC?

Thank you for your help in advance.
P.S. I am planning on buying a laptop in the near future to avoid this problem.

Ok, thanks I will try that. How do I store the processed blocks on my flash drive so each time I put it in a new computer, the client doesn't have to sync the entire block history?

I'm synced with the network. The thing is that when I was syncing to the network, the time on my computer kept changing due to a bug with the operating system (both OSX and windows 7 enterprise). Could this be causing my client to not be caught up with the blockchain?

Earlier this year in May, I was able to purchase my first few BTC. I saved bitcoin-qt version 0.8.1-beta to a USB drive and also saved a copy of my wallet.dat file to another USB drive. Now when trying to view my balance, I synced with the network and see a balance of 0. I know the coins are still there because I viewed the address on blockchain info. I tried opening my wallet.dat file without having qt client running, but when I browse the files to open it with the qt client it doesnt add it to the list of programs to use. I downloaded the 0.8.5-beta version, but that didn't change anything either. Any ideas? Thank you!

Not as of yet...

I see. Thanks for that fact sandwich!

I understand why people today would want to mine for Bitcoin as there are unsolved blocks left, but what happens when all of the Bitcoins have been mined? Won't everyone lose the incentive to mine, therefore decomposing the network?

I am. I would be willing to invest my time and smarts to a group project.

a roaming folder is where buffalo files roam