Is there any cure for my cack-handed idiocy?

[RobbyD10]

I'm afraid I've done something very dumb through ignorance and panic and lost myself some bitcoins. The question is whether the process is somehow reversible and whether I can somehow get them back. Any help that anybody could provide me with would be much appreciated. Let's take it through step by step:

The other day I was browsing some, ummm.... "exotic" material on the internet.

While browsing I was suddenly hit with a locked, obviously fake "MSN" screen informing me that my PC was being "encrypted" and that I would need to call such and such a number to sort it out. I quickly hit the power off button. Then rebooted. Everything appeared OK and a full security check failed to turn up any issues. So far so good.

The problem was I'd stupidly left my bitcoin core wallet open to receive a transaction while browsing. I didn't shut down the wallet properly before resetting my computer. So when I loaded the wallet back up, the block chain appeared to be out of sync and started rebuilding itself. This wasn't such a problem, but rather worryingly, I noticed that the amount pending in my wallet had been reduced by roughly one half. I wasn't sure if this was something to do with the chain rebuilding itself, or if thieves had somehow managed to dip into my wallet (sorry if I sound really ignorant here - I don't know how likely or possible this is).

I decided to let the block rebuild itself and see where I stood. The problem is, when I checked back later, the amount pending was dropping further as the block rebuilt. At this point I started to panic and thought that perhaps thieves were having an open season on my wallet.

Out of a sense of desperation (and I really don't know whether this was a sensible thing to do or not) I hit the "reset options" button under the options section of the settings menu. This had the effect of unencrypting my wallet and basically starting from scratch. All my previous transaction history disappeared, all values were set to zero and the block had to rebuild itself from the start. This made me very frightened that I'd done an incredibly stupid thing.

Not knowing what else to do, I just let the index rebuild itself in the hopes that my bitcoins would reappear. But at the end of the rebuild (over a process of several days) the total value available to me remained at zero.

I really don't know what has happened at this point. Whether I have been robbed blind or whether I've messed up myself here by hitting the "rest options" button.

The question is, is there any cure for my ignorance and stupidity? Can I find out what has happened? Any way to get my precious coins back? Somebody please save me from my complete and utter dumbassery.

[achow101]

The reset options button should not affect your wallet like that, although someone in the past has mentioned that it has.

However, as long as you did not delete your wallet, all of your Bitcoin should be safe. Try starting the wallet with the -rescan option. Right click the shortcut to start Bitcoin Core and select properties. In the box labeled "target", add -rescan to the end of whatever is already in there. Make sure that there is a space between what is there and what you add. Then click OK and double click the shortcut to start Bitcoin Core. It will rescan and you should see your Bitcoin in your wallet. Rescanning can take a while. Once it is done, you can go back to the shortcut's properties and delete the -rescan.

Also, you should upgrade to the latest version of Bitcoin Core. AFAIK, the issue with needing to reindex on a hard shutdown or crash was only with older versions of the software.

[RobbyD10]

Thanks for that mate. I'll give it a try and fingers crossed it will sort out my issue!

[RobbyD10]

The reset options button should not affect your wallet like that, although someone in the past has mentioned that it has.

However, as long as you did not delete your wallet, all of your Bitcoin should be safe. Try starting the wallet with the -rescan option. Right click the shortcut to start Bitcoin Core and select properties. In the box labeled "target", add -rescan to the end of whatever is already in there. Make sure that there is a space between what is there and what you add. Then click OK and double click the shortcut to start Bitcoin Core. It will rescan and you should see your Bitcoin in your wallet. Rescanning can take a while. Once it is done, you can go back to the shortcut's properties and delete the -rescan.

Also, you should upgrade to the latest version of Bitcoin Core. AFAIK, the issue with needing to reindex on a hard shutdown or crash was only with older versions of the software.

Alas, the above rescan option has been to no avail.    I've upgraded to the latest version of Bitcoin Core and tried again, but still no joy  .

Any other tips you could kindly offer?

[merelcoin]

The reset options button should not affect your wallet like that, although someone in the past has mentioned that it has.

However, as long as you did not delete your wallet, all of your Bitcoin should be safe. Try starting the wallet with the -rescan option. Right click the shortcut to start Bitcoin Core and select properties. In the box labeled "target", add -rescan to the end of whatever is already in there. Make sure that there is a space between what is there and what you add. Then click OK and double click the shortcut to start Bitcoin Core. It will rescan and you should see your Bitcoin in your wallet. Rescanning can take a while. Once it is done, you can go back to the shortcut's properties and delete the -rescan.

Also, you should upgrade to the latest version of Bitcoin Core. AFAIK, the issue with needing to reindex on a hard shutdown or crash was only with older versions of the software.

Alas, the above rescan option has been to no avail.    I've upgraded to the latest version of Bitcoin Core and tried again, but still no joy  .

Any other tips you could kindly offer?

Could you tell us which address you gave the person who was paying you? You could easily use  blockchain.info or blockr.io to check if the coins are at least in the correct address.
If they are in the correct address, it might be wise to make a backup of your wallet and keep it safe while you try to fix your issues, but at least you know your problem will be "fixable". If the coins didn't show up on the address, there is no use in trying...

[RobbyD10]

Could you tell us which address you gave the person who was paying you? You could easily use  blockchain.info or blockr.io to check if the coins are at least in the correct address.
If they are in the correct address, it might be wise to make a backup of your wallet and keep it safe while you try to fix your issues, but at least you know your problem will be "fixable". If the coins didn't show up on the address, there is no use in trying...

Thanks for the advice.

The address I provided and which the funds were sent to was: 1L1T35UsuL63acp93HszTMi5xbzgizu6az

A check on blockchain.info shows that the transaction did indeed go through to this address! So that's something to start with I suppose...

[merelcoin]

Could you tell us which address you gave the person who was paying you? You could easily use  blockchain.info or blockr.io to check if the coins are at least in the correct address.
If they are in the correct address, it might be wise to make a backup of your wallet and keep it safe while you try to fix your issues, but at least you know your problem will be "fixable". If the coins didn't show up on the address, there is no use in trying...

Thanks for the advice.

The address I provided and which the funds were sent to was: 1L1T35UsuL63acp93HszTMi5xbzgizu6az

A check on blockchain.info shows that the transaction did indeed go through to this address! So that's something to start with I suppose...

So, you're basically talking about this transaction:
https://blockchain.info/tx/292098105e656913977efbf1b84cd47f7d7e422a3d30fe5949f2a6979560afec

Your account has a final balance of ~0.95BTC
https://blockchain.info/address/1L1T35UsuL63acp93HszTMi5xbzgizu6az

So, since you're using the bitcoin core wallet, as a next step, i would backup the wallet.dat to a SECURE location, preferably encrypted!!!
Next things you could do include, but are not limited to:

• install bitcoin core on a secondary machine, replace the wallet.dat of the SECONDARY machine by the wallet.dat you backupped, let everything sync and hope you get to see your coins
• export your private key from the console window (you might have to unlock your wallet first) and sweep this key in electrum (since this is an SPV client, it should show your balance very soon, since it only needs to download the headers instead of doing a full sync

[achow101]

Could you tell us which address you gave the person who was paying you? You could easily use  blockchain.info or blockr.io to check if the coins are at least in the correct address.
If they are in the correct address, it might be wise to make a backup of your wallet and keep it safe while you try to fix your issues, but at least you know your problem will be "fixable". If the coins didn't show up on the address, there is no use in trying...

Thanks for the advice.

The address I provided and which the funds were sent to was: 1L1T35UsuL63acp93HszTMi5xbzgizu6az

A check on blockchain.info shows that the transaction did indeed go through to this address! So that's something to start with I suppose...

Check that your wallet has the private key to that address. Go to Help > Debug Window > Console. In the box, type

Code:

dumpprivkey 1L1T35UsuL63acp93HszTMi5xbzgizu6az

Then hit enter.

If the private key to your address is in your wallet, then you will see a string that starts with a 5, K, or L. The text will be in black. If it is successful, DO NOT SHARE THE PRIVATE KEY WITH ANYONE.

If the command fails, your will see red text with an error. If the error is something like" address not in wallet" then you do not have the private key in your wallet. In that case, if you don't have a backup of your wallet, then you have lost your bitcoin.

Edit: also, did you have a custom data directory set? The reset options button is known to revert it to the default data directory.

[DannyHamilton]

The advice and assistance you are getting from knightdk is worth listening to.  He's got a pretty good idea what he's talking about and is a helpful person.

As is typical of someone with a paid advertisement in their signature, merelcoin doesn't know what he's talking about.  He's saying things that are simply wrong. Listening to him, and following his advice, are likely to make things worse for you.

Before you touch ANYTHING more, the first thing you should do is search your computer for any files named wallet.dat.  If you find more than one of them, you should be EXTREMELY careful not to overwrite any of them with each other, and you should IMMEDIATELY create backups of all of them on something that you can remove from your computer (such as a USB connected storage device).

After you originally installed Bitcoin Core, whenever that was, it would have been a GREAT idea to backup your wallet.  Since this is real money, and you wouldn't want to risk losing your money from something like a hard-drive crash, you hopefully would have created a backup of the wallet at least once sometime in the past.

So,

• Have you ever created a backup of your wallet in the past?
• If so, do you know where to find that backup?
• Have you searched your entire computer for all copies of wallet.dat yet?
• Have you made backup copies of all the wallet.dat files that you found?
• How many did you find, and what subdirectories (folders) did you find them in?

[merelcoin]

The advice and assistance you are getting from knightdk is worth listening to.  He's got a pretty good idea what he's talking about and is a helpful person.

As is typical of someone with a paid advertisement in their signature, merelcoin doesn't know what he's talking about.  He's saying things that are simply wrong. Listening to him, and following his advice, are likely to make things worse for you.

Before you touch ANYTHING more, the first thing you should do is search your computer for any files named wallet.dat.  If you find more than one of them, you should be EXTREMELY careful not to overwrite any of them with each other, and you should IMMEDIATELY create backups of all of them on something that you can remove from your computer (such as a USB connected storage device).

After you originally installed Bitcoin Core, whenever that was, it would have been a GREAT idea to backup your wallet.  Since this is real money, and you wouldn't want to risk losing your money from something like a hard-drive crash, you hopefully would have created a backup of the wallet at least once sometime in the past.

So,

• Have you ever created a backup of your wallet in the past?
• If so, do you know where to find that backup?
• Have you searched your entire computer for all copies of wallet.dat yet?
• Have you made backup copies of all the wallet.dat files that you found?
• How many did you find, and what subdirectories (folders) did you find them in?

Hi DannyHamilton, Just a quick question: you say that my advice is completely wrong, and that the OP should in no way follow it... But all i said to him was
1) he should backup his wallet.dat to a secure location
2) he could use this backupped wallet.dat on a second pc, so that when he syncs his clients using the wallet.dat from point 1 he will probably see his coins back (since the wallet.dat from point 1 should contain his private keys)
3) he could also export his private keys and sweep them in an SPV client

I should have added the fact that he should have looked for every wallet.dat on his system to make a backup. But if he'd followed my advice, he wouldn't have touched his core client on his original pc.

The thing is: i sincerely gave this advice while trying to help the OP, could you please teach me a bit, and tell me why my advise was wrong?

I know you've been around a lot longer, and have more technical knowledge than i do, so instead of trying to defend myself, i'd like to know what i did wrong so next time i could give the correct advise if somebody asks for it.

[DannyHamilton]

i'd like to know what i did wrong so next time i could give the correct advise if somebody asks for it.

You asked him about a single address in his wallet, as if knowing this one address would somehow help determine why all the bitcoins that were already previously in his wallet had suddenly disappeared:

Could you tell us which address you gave the person who was paying you?

You indicated that the problem would be "fixable" if the bitcoins were sent to that one address, without knowing whether or not he had lost access to his original wallet and private keys:

If they are in the correct address. . . at least you know your problem will be "fixable".

You say his "account" has a balance, when he doesn't have an "account" anywhere at all:

Your account has a final balance of ~0.95BTC

The OP is concerned about losing ALL the bitcoins in his entire wallet, and you are focused on the the bitcoins associated with a single address:

https://blockchain.info/address/1L1T35UsuL63acp93HszTMi5xbzgizu6az

You only suggest exporting a single private key, without knowing how many addresses had bitcoins in the original wallet and without knowing if the current wallet even has that private key any more.

export your private key from the console window (you might have to unlock your wallet first) and sweep this key

[merelcoin_nosig]

@DannyHamilton and @OP

I appologise, after reading DannyHamilton's explanation, he is indeed 100% right (i already tought i would have made a mistake when DannyHamilton said i was completely wrong). The only thing i wish to add is, in case anybody cares, it was an honest mistake. I just didn't think about the fact that this might not have been the only private key in his/her wallet, and i made a terminology error (account instead of address... I'm not a native speaker, so sometimes i make mistakes like this when i'm focusing om my -poor- grammar). I did tell him to start by making a good backup, so i guess he hasn't lost all his coins in case he followed my advice and only exported the one private key.

Thanks for clearing things up, i actually learned something from your reply

PS: i've created a throwaway account to tell you this, in order to avoid getting an extra sig payment out of my apology

[RobbyD10]

Just wanted to give a quick thanks to everybody who tried to provide me with assistance in this thread: it's much appreciated guys.

Unfortunately at this point I would have to conclude that I've lost the money. I no longer have the private key for the transaction and I foolishly neglected to back up my wallet. Guess that's one for the lessons learned file!

Anyway, thanks once again fellas.

[shorena]

Just wanted to give a quick thanks to everybody who tried to provide me with assistance in this thread: it's much appreciated guys.

Unfortunately at this point I would have to conclude that I've lost the money. I no longer have the private key for the transaction and I foolishly neglected to back up my wallet. Guess that's one for the lessons learned file!

Anyway, thanks once again fellas.

Dont give up yet. Bear with me for a moment please. What the "reset" button does is that it resets your options (like where is the wallet file). The only reasonable explanation I can think of that this would have the effect (all bitcoins "gone") you described is if you in the past had your blockchain data or the wallet file moved to a different location. The reset would have restored this to the default settings, while your wallet file would still be at the old location. Could this be the case? Do you have a different disk you store the blockchain (and thus the wallet file) on? Do you maybe have renamed the wallet.dat to a different name for some reason?

[philipma1957]

 To the op :

So as I read this it appears you lost 0.95 btc
I try to help people like you in a different way.
I point a miner at ck's solo pool for a week and if I hit the block I give them some coins.

So   here is the miner pointed

http://solo.ckpool.org/users/1JdC6Xg3ajT3rge3FgPNSYYFpmf53Vbtje


 If it hits by next sunday I will send you 1.11 btc

I am doing this for you and the guy below at the moment.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1435547.msg14852422#msg14852422

I also run this free thread that has a .4 btc prize

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1468645.0

you may as well enter it will open in about 2 days  it is free.

I use my signature earnings to run the free contest and to do these I am sorry you got fucked solo pool runs.

I actually did hit one block and awarded more then 16 coins.


It is a good story and true it starts at this post

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=763510.msg12841584#msg12841584

read it and read the next few pages of the thread as it has a happy ending for the I got fucked guy.

So whenever I am in a good mood I look for a good I got fucked story and toss some hash at the solo pool.

I am trying to write a good sequel to that story.