Thanks for the replay, and advice

Yea, I admit, I have been " at this for 8 years" , but really haven't touched the technology in 7 - life has a way of making time fly by. I DO seem to have the wallet.dat files, I found 4 of them on the computer, 3 are the same size, one is bigger. I have now backed them all up a few times. I earnestly do apologize for the noob questions, really trying my best here. I used to understand a lot of this stuff, but I haven't touched it in so long. I have been really busy starting a company, getting married, building family members, losing family members, it seems these days I blink, and a month goes by.

I was correct that the previously installed bitcoin program , called "qt" was opening on another screen (that wasn't hooked up), it is now opening , and I can see it , there is a "overview" "send" "receive"  "transactions" and "addresses" nothing really jumps out at me as an address or some thing of importance. The program is showing the recorded the 2 bitcoins. "transactions" show some account number not sure if they help. Now that I have access to this program, I have export the wallet from there as well.

there is a "received with" address starting with 1QC I don't think this really helps though.

So, some progress, any thoughts for next steps?

thanks for reaching out .. yes, I am still in control of that address, I think. I looked at the 2019 thread I started, and that is where I got the "guide" from .. and as I started reading through it, It mentioned that I need somewhat to move the coins to , IE like a new current address - and that is probably true. that is why I was asking , I made it that far, and realized, that even if I have access to the old address/data or what ever I need, I am really not prepared on what to do at that point.

I so far have found a few wallet.dat files on the old ( air gapped ) computer. There is a BTC program on it, seems to "run" , but when I go to open it, it appears to open "off the screen" and even trying to "cascade windows" doesn't seem to bring it back. might try hooking up second monitor.

I would be happy I think putting the needed information to access accounts on USB sticks, and using that as the method of storage. Maybe. I don't even know what that data is .


The over arching goal is to take the BTC that was "moth balled" in my basement on a old computer that might not boot up again, on an old set of RAID drives ( that are already saying they are in "degraded" state) and making it a "current , accessible account. Something that I am not worried will just "stop working".

Does that make sense?

With respect, again, thank you for your help.

Hello all, I am in the middle of "recovering" some old bitcoin I have on a old computer, (this might be called bitcoin original, my terms might be wrong, but I think it is an "old version" and on one of the guides I was reading brought up a very good point. --- I need a new place to put the coins.  I have an old ".dat" file

I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction.

I also had very little litecoin as well, if that could be "housed " in the same system that would be convenient, but that is not something I need.

I would prefer something that is basically "local only" , where I can keep track of my address, or some files, to ensure I never lose my bitcoin, I don't really want any online websites I have to go through to get to my coins, if that is possible, because something as simple as the website going down might mean my coins are lost, or if that third party gets hacked or something.

Easy is better then hard.

Any guidance is very very much appreciated, trying to get this all sorted this weekend.

read through that ,, .. I think I might have the wallet.dat files.. just not sure what to "DO" with them ...

certainly appreciate the theme of that post  of "first do no harm"!

no , not buy a long shot .. I wish though. (maybe it was 50 gig?). It not appropriate to talk about how much I hav eI don't think . but converted, less then 10000 Cnd.

Hello Everyone, bit of a odd, embarrassing, question here.

I got some bit coin a while ago, and I plan to hold on to it for a while. I didn't forget that I have it , I just kinda lost touch with the technology. and I am not sure how to access the coins now.

While I don't want to sell it today , I want to make sure I still "have" access to it, and can sell it when I want, or use it to buy stuff.
I stored it on a computer, that I no longer use, but I can still access the files( for now). I might have a wallet address.

The original program I was using required a large download, I think it was like 5 gig at the time, it was the block chain I think.


How do I go about "finding", and regaiing contorll of my coins ( I have some lite coin as well to )  - you can assume I am as noob as it comes.

Links to help guides are also appreciated.
Cheers.

Hello, I had a wallet with I think what is called bitcoin -qt I think it is one of the original bit coin "clients" I know that it takes a long time to sync cause it downloads all teh data when you first install it. anyway, I had this account on it, and I backed it up with a file name based on teh date of the back up -- something like "feb 4th" or something. I have that backup file, but I don't understand how to get it "back into" the bitcoin program.

I think I have to move it to a specific folder, but I might also have to re-name it.

please advise.

so I first heard about bit coin about... 6 years ago or something like that , . didn't really "get it", or get in to it.  About a year ago a friend bought in to it, and so I re-researched it and bought a small amount of coin.

but I have come to question where the future of bit coin is? I certainly see the value in bit coin, .. how it allows things "normal" money doesn't. I can see a future there.

I am not really sure there is any inherent advantage between inflationary and deflationary currency. I am not *that* well informed on economics. I can see arguments both ways.

Fundamentally though, I have a problem with bitcoin in so far currently it seems that there is no economy- it seems there are plenty of printing presses MAKING money, but no value being generated. There are truly staggering sums of money being made by people, but no value for their work. "I plugged in a asic and waited a year", has not made the bitcoin future, or economy any better.  Furthermore with large numbers of BT in accounts, we have industry kingpins, that have no industry.

I think PART of this issue is the fact that bitcoin are given out to quickly and easily. ROI should be comparable to other typical private industry lets call it 15%. This idea of getting your money back in 3 months is crazy, and is due to everyone else jumping on board. There was a concept called the "tredgity of the commons" that speaks to this issue.


Does this bother you at all, .. anyone else feel like money bad so far in bitcoin mining, is the biggest thing holding it back?

I think part of the discussion missing here, is the assumptions of current, historical, and future exchange rate of bitcoin and usd(or what ever fiat)

you see if price goes up to 1 btc = 300usd, that is a different situation then if 1 btc goes down to 50 .....

I would think in the long term the suck-fixed cost of aquireing bit coin will pale in compareision to the exchange rate change, . be it up or down.

BO- same thing everyone else around here does, . turn around and sell them for profit

Heard from a few people,. but still open to offers.

I am looking to buy shares in the project, if anyone is interested.

Kev.

looking to invest up to maybe 5 btc in to a ASIC mining rig shares

Let me know either here or in PM if you want to sell some.

here is an example I found

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170654.0

it asks for "Reply with the Bitcoin address you are sending from and the total amount you are investing."

so I would have to know the address taht I send from???

SO I was looking around on some of the exchange site and others.

some of them ask for the address that you are sending your information from - when you pay them. I thought this was not really important , and that it was a hard to get?

so lets say I sent 1 bit coin to someone would they "see" that is came to me .. or only that one coin came in to there address, and not know who it came from.

Sorry to be so noob, just a little confused on the mechanics of sending and recieveing.

okay, so I am 10 steps farther down the path now..

If I hve a backed up version of the dat file, are there risks I should know about.. is it one time back up , .. or after each trasaction? ... how do I "USE" the dat file, I don't see a option to "import dat file" or "restore from back up" in bitcoin -qt

Oh, and 1 more question, . how do I find out the address that they "came" from .. or is that even possible ... seems to me that bit coin is "1 sided" in so far as you can see receiving addresses, be not "sending" address is this right?

Thanks for the help, I am getting it sorted out a bit I guess...


I see that there is the "receive coins" tab, and this is the number/account (what do you call this?)  I share if I want to GET coins.

Mine is : 1QCvEe6xU6Dsh83bxEaEsh8ftGnoqUvgoH

now, if I want to send coins , there is a place for me to enter a number there too (who ever I am sending too)....

However, I get confused as soon as I start to think about my "account"

Do I have a account number, . or just send and receive address?

There is a back up option, it makes a "DAT" file, is that the file I need to keep track of.

I am sorry, for noob questions, but just fighting with terms and some of the concepts.

THANKS YOU for all the help, it is really appreciated

hmm, .the page is displaying oddly, I think I might have made a poll, nontheless.

I have downloaded bitcoin -qt, and even visited a few places was able to get a VERY small amount of coin in it. I am wondering however about the "address" or "keys" That are used.

can someone please explain in some detail the "public/private " keys situation, and what I need to back up in order to get my coins back if I lose my computer, and also, what key I share with others to get paid, and what key I use to pay others..

Sorry if it is kinda noobish, but I find that the information I was expecting to see in bitcoin -qt, is note really what I see.

THANKS!